"We will soon embark on designing and developing an unmanned combat aerial vehicle, which will not only do surveillance, but will also help detect the target and destroy the identified object," V.K. Saraswat, scientific advisor to Defence Minister A.K. Antony, told reporters on November 24, 2010 after  inaugurating the fifth national conference on 'NextGen IT for Indian Defence'.

Saraswat recently took over as director general of the DRDO, said on the margins of a conference. 

"The controls of a combat drone will be rested with multiple command control centres. The centres can be geographically at different locations. Even if one centre becomes defunct, the drone can be controlled and guided by other centers. 

"The UCAV will work in a multi-layer manner for which ADE is developing the required technology, including sensors," Sarsawat added.