India may have missed the bus of indigenous fifth generation warfare platforms like multirole stealth fighters, subsurface sea platforms, unmanned combat drones etc, but Indian drone developers hope to catch the 5G drone bus and make the country a drone hub by 2030. They hope to soon ride the train of fifth generation flying birds like warfare systems, euphemistically called drones. Though the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) promises to deliver some advanced combat and surveillance drones soon, Indian armed forces still remain critically dependent on foreign supplies.
After an initial delay, the Indian security establishment has taken a few significant steps over the last few years, as a result of which Indian drone developers seem to be working on a war footing. A significant development on the front is that the government is encouraging the private sector, even start-ups, which have their own ingenious ways of working free from any bureaucratic culture. This is proven by the fact that most of the high-end drone technology and products have come from Indian private startups, who will now showcase their autonomous flying wonders during Drone Shakti-2023 on September 25-26 at the Hindon IAF airbase. The organisers have claimed that India is likely to be a global drone hub by 2030.
These entrepreneurs working on drone technology have immense potential to equip the armed forces with latest generation autonomous flying tiny weapon systems. To encourage these entrepreneurs, the Indian Air Force and the Ministry of Defence have taken several initiatives like organising the Meher Baba Swarm Drone competition that sought to tap the home-bred talent. Drone entrepreneurs are also being encouraged by a non-governmental group named the Drone Federation of India, with which the IAF has partnered to co-host the Bharat Drone Shakti where the Indian drone industry will give live aerial demonstrations. Over 75 drone startups and corporates are expected to participate in the grand show. Bharat Drone Shakti-23 promises to showcase the prowess of the fast emerging Indian drone industry in full capacity.
Drone Race Is Revolutionising Military Warfare
The story began two years ago, when the international strategic community was stunned to see a live demonstration of 75 under-trial drones in full public glare during the annual Army Day parade on January 15, 2021.
A race of sorts for acquiring indigenous drones has begun among nations, with the US having taken a big lead already on this front. Countries like Turkey, Iran have also joined this race, and those like China and Russia are adding new dimensions, working on anti-drone technology by empowering the tiny flying machines with electronic warfare systems to disable the connectivity of flying drones from their ground controls or sending area signals to disable their internal command systems. India’s DRDO also claims to have achieved progress in this technology, but is not certain when the armed forces would have such anti-drone systems added to their arsenal.
The technocrat entrepreneurs are changing the dynamics of war, revolutionising military warfare by bringing new genres of weapon systems that were hitherto unthinkable. The technology of swarm drones, for example, has opened vast possibilities, and can make many of the current generation weapon systems redundant.
Such is the overwhelming response to the upcoming drone show at the Hindon IAF base that over 5,000 have registered, and they include representatives from central and state governments, public and private sector corporates, the armed forces, paramilitary forces and representatives from friendly countries. This shows the extent of human resources waiting to be tapped for equipping the armed forces with new generation weapons.
The event will showcase applications like survey drones, agriculture drones, fire suppression drones, tactical surveillance drones, heavy lift logistics drones, loitering munitions drones, drone swarms, counter drone solutions etc.
America's AFADS And India's Indrajaal
To understand the real world of drones, it would be relevant to discuss developments in the USA. Zachary Kallenborn, a US-based expert on drone technology, contends that US forces are likely to get a type of swarm that would be called ‘armed, fully autonomous drone swarm’ or ‘AFADS’, which once unleashed will locate, identify and attack targets without human intervention. In fact, the US Army is also working on a Cluster UAS Smart Munition for missile deployment. The cluster swarm project is developing a missile warhead to dispense a swarm of small drones that fan out to locate and destroy vehicles with “explosively formed penetrators”. The Cluster swarm involves drones that carry 180 pound payload and a range of 70 km.
In fact, American companies are working on a lethal swarm drone, which can be termed equivalent to weapons of mass destruction. The Indian drone developers, meanwhile, are focussing on defensive drones called ‘Indrajaal’. A Hyderabad- based technology research and development organisation, Grene Robotics, has developed India’s first indigenous drone defence dome, Indrajaal, which can protect 1,000 to 2,000 square kilometre of area by assessing and acting on aerial threats like unmanned aerial vehicles, loitering munitions and low radar cross section targets. Indrajal would be helpful in providing the defence bases the protection needed by them.
The Indrajal has a real time awareness of the situation and has an integrated all current weapons suite. It has a synergistic combination of around 10 technologies and a 24/7 persistent autonomous tracking system powered by artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and robotics. These enable the drones to identify, assess and evolve autonomously in real time. Indrajal can provide seamless connectivity and can do that better than any 300 point defence anti-UAV system.
The indigenous development of the Indrajal area defence system with local talent provides hope for other drone developers that India has enough knowledge base and talent to develop state-of-the-art, competitive drones that can equal or even better the best of the world. Significantly, last year’s Union Budget had also announced a Bharat Shakti initiative to promote and facilitate domestic manufacturing of drones for civil and military use. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in her budget speech that the government would promote startups to facilitate Drone Shakti and start relevant courses for developing human resources.
(The author is a senior journalist and strategic affairs analyst.)
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