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The seminar was inaugurated by Gen VK Singh, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation. The Keynote Address was delivered by Dr VK Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog.

Session I – Inaugural Session

Welcome Address. Air Marshal Anil Chopra, Director General Centre for Air Power Studies, highlighted the wide range of applications of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) which includes surveillaance, security, logistics, civilian uses in areas of agriculture, transport and many more. He further discussed the increasing significance of the application of UAS in military services. Air Marshal Chopra also highlighted the lessons from the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the increasing usage of drones with proliferating defensive as well as offensive capabilities. He emphasized India’s excellent efforts in developing drone technologies and the development of an unmanned aerial ecosystem. He further underlined India’s potential to become a global drone industry in the coming years.

Inaugural Address. Delivering the Inaugural Address, Gen VK Singh, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, traced the history of drones and discussed the increasing efficacy of UAS. He further highlighted the significance of emerging technology along with the increasing role of artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) in the utilization of drone technology both in the civilian and military domains. He further emphasized on the role that India plays in building this ecosystem. Gen Singh threw light on the Indian government’s plans and initiatives which have been undertaken for making this a reality. Underlining the significance of this technology in the coming years, he elucidated that the government has been supportive of this and that an ecosystem is supportive of research and development in this domain. He also mentioned that the rules and regulations have been revamped with the new drone policy of 25thAugust 2021 which seeks to change the regulatory regime for drones. He stressed the ‘Make in India’ initiative and the increasing use of drones in all sectors, civilian and military alike.

Keynote Address. Delivering the Keynote Address, Dr VK Saraswat, Member NITI Aayog, emphasised the integration of drones into the existing aviation space. In his detailed presentation, Dr Saraswat focused on five main research areas of the UAS which included smart UAV, remote sensing payloads, Robotic UAV payloads, Multi-vehicle networking, Fault-tolerant and robust UAV navigation—i.e., enabling ship-based UAV operations in remote and harsh conditions. He mentioned that as the systems become more and more autonomous with the advancement in technology, it becomes necessary for India to engage in quality and indigenous R&D programs to be initiated in India’s premier higher education institutions such as IITs. Dr Saraswat also spoke about the UAV’s military applications which include strike missions, intelligence & situational awareness, electronic warfare, suppression, and destruction of enemy’s air defence, network node or communication delay, and combat search and rescue. He concluded by making three arguments- (1) Atmanirbharta is necessary in the UAS sector; (2) the necessity to develop extremely good designs and design capabilities with the need for deep R&D; and (3) the efforts in this sector must be qualitative and not just focused on numbers.

Special Talk. Air Marshal Radhakrishnan Radhish, SASO Western Air Command, gave a Special Talk and discussed changes in the UAS systems in the past few years. He mentioned the increasing demand in the civil sector for UAS highlighting the fact that various e-commerce giants also venturing into this domain. Highlighting the need to increase the role of UAS in the IAF, he discussed as to how UAS can play a major role in providing intelligence along with other military responsibilities. Drawing lessons from various conflicts around the world in the past few years, he opined that UAS would complement manned fighter aircraft. He also mentioned that the IAF is developing a road map for the UAS. He also spoke about the increasing use of niche drone technology and swarm drones pointing out that by 2026, India could potentially emerge as the world’s third largest drone market. This is along with the fact that 23per cent of the global drone start-ups are in India.

Special Talk. Lt Gen Ajai Kumar Suri, Director General, Army Aviation also gave a Special Talk and brought in a fresh perspective from the Indian Army. The Indian Army has been using drone technology for the last two decades. He further discussed the need to extrapolate how others are utilizing this surveillance mechanism. The induction of drones into the Services is now unavoidable. He underlined certain challenges, like genuine, indigenous technological development; airspace management; counter drone measures including matching capabilities with those in competition or developing better technology; and outsourcing the task of UAS to civil industry. He stressed that UAS could emerge as a formidable force multiplier and should be employed to its full extent.

Release of Knowledge Paper. Col KV Kuber, Director Defence & Aerospace, E & Y in the presence of the esteemed guests which included presented the EY-IMR Knowledge Paper on the Unmanned Aerial Systems, which was released by the guests.

Session 2—UAV Requirements

The theme of Session 2 was UAV Requirements of the Services, their efficacy, present technologies, and the way forward. The session was chaired by Air Vice Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, ACAS (Plans), Air HQ.

Sameer Joshi, CEO, Newspace Research and Technologies discussed the ‘Design and Development of the UAVs at Newspace for Penetration of Contested Airspace.’ He explained the notion of contested airspace as ‘layered defence’ further discussing the SWOT analysis where he touched upon manned platforms; stealth (manned/unmanned); Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAVs and drone swarms. He further discussed the feedback from SWOT analysis which included manned platforms highlighting that they will suffer attrition while penetrating the contested air space. He mentioned that the stealth/low radar cross-section (RCS)in unmanned or manned assets is most effective even though they come with technological or cost implications. He underlined that the significant increase in the number of UAVs will eventually increase the combat capacity and survivability in a contested environment. He discussed that the UAVs are complementary with force-multiplying capabilities, and not the replacement for 4th or 5th-generation manned assets. He further mentioned that the stand-alone non-stealth MALE UAVs will not be able to operate at will in the contested air space, and therefore, will suffer huge attrition. He mentioned that swarm drones offer the best return of investment towards saturation of targets. He further discussed that the requirements of stand-alone small-sized drones will increase exponentially to locate and fix targets right down to the squad level, provided they can survive baseline anti-drone measures. According to Mr. Joshi, Manned Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) will be an important component of collaborative autonomy as the need in terms of air warfare by the end of 2022.Mentioning that robots are the future warriors, autonomous robots extend military reach into well-defended battle space, operating with greater range and persistence. In the end, he mentioned the salience of AI, highlighting that through AI there is a guarantee to take on dangerous and suicidal missions with minimum possible casualty both in terms of providing greater success in the face of increased threat levels and penetration of well-defended airspace.

Gp Capt NK Chaubey, Director NBC, Air HQ explained the ‘IAF’s UAV Plans.’ He discussed in detail the UAS systems such as Searcher MK-II, Heron and Heron MK-II utilized by the IAF. While explaining their tasks, he explained about the Imaging EQ/IR and SAR, SIGINT gathering, COMINT gathering, laser designation, RPA assisted helicopter and fighter strike, battle damage, assessment, search & rescue, base-defence missions, HADR missions, live coverage of various tests and trials. While discussing the way forward, he discussed the MALE class remotely pilot aircraft with enhanced capabilities including uninhabited combat air vehicle (UCAV), loiter munitions, UAVs for Base Defence, indigenous productions for sustenance, and inter-service operations. Discussing the Manned Operation and Intelligence Centre (MOIC) section, he focused on the enhanced capabilities of the IAF to generate intelligence; centralize a hub for archival and analysis of all ISR data; and simultaneous control of UAVs through SATCOM.

Col Kumar Gaurav, Col Avn-10 (RPAs), Army Aviation Directorate, Army HQ, shared his views on ‘Army’s HALE and MALE UAV Requirements.’ He explained that HALE RPAs and MALE RPAs were the perfect examples of splitter-shooter platforms. They can engage with the target with onboard weapon systems which include laser-guided bombs, missiles, and anti-tank missiles. Similarly, MALE RPA can acquire the target, get precise data of the target, and transfer data to long-range vectors. Col. Gaurav also discussed that RPA AO/payload has the capacity to carry out overall damage assessment and re-engage the target by the HALE UAVs.

Lt Col Shubham Madan, GSO-1 (Equipment), Infantry Directorate, Army HQ spoke on ‘Army’s Tactical UAV Requirements.’ He identified four areas – logistics, surveillance, enemy threat, and counter-drone operations, where UAS were needed for infantry observation requirements. He mentioned that as part of logistics, the requirements criteria included 5500 metres AMSL, 1000m AGL, 20-50 kg, and 10-15 km. While mentioning the logistical challenges he discussed the road infrastructure in forwarding areas, winter cut-off of posts, and last mile connectivity. In terms of surveillance, the requirements were highlighted as 6000m, 1000m AGL, vertical take-off and landing and man-portable. He also highlighted the requirements by terrain, i.e., in the North-East region, J&K, plains and deserts. While discussing the main challenges for surveillance, he mentioned the forwarded areas, varied terrains and lack of landing grounds. For counter-drone operations, he raised the questions of range and cost-effectiveness. Further, he mentioned that counter drones should be able to detect, identify and destroy the target while identifying the enemy threat as – Armed and ULP GMs.

Cdr Hemant Shekar, Commander (AW)-RPA, Naval HQ focused on ‘Navy’s experience with drones and future plans.’ He highlighted the restricted speed, electromagnetic radiation and susceptibility to detection, RPA’s detectable by C/D radars of ships, range limited to line of sight, and operational capability in fair weather only. The key focus of the Navy has been to enhance the capabilities in the areas of long-range anti-submarine warfare (ASW), surveillance and reconnaissance. During the discussion, he highlighted that currently, the Indian Navy had UAVs which have navigation/control features combined with specialised sensors, mainly aimed at achieving precise surveillance over the enemy territories. However, there is a need for the UCAVs to go beyond surveillance into a new dimension with their weaponised capability to engage in air-to-surface (land/water) and even air-to-air targets.

Nagendran Kandasamy, CEO Throttle Aerospace Systems (TAS) discussed ‘How Drone Defender enables safer airspace?’ The Drone Defender is loaded with 13 pre-programmed modes to lock, track and neutralize rogue drones. It can effectively neutralise threats without any human intervention. It aims to provide a first-of-a-kind capability to the Indian defence forces to discard rogue drones flying over unauthorised airspace. This is in context with the rising instances of drone-based aerial threats to restricted installations under defence and private airspace. According to Kandaswamy, this can be considered to be a key milestone in India’s journey of self-reliance in defence preparedness.

Session 3—Industry’s Potential and Capabilities

The theme of Session 3 was Industry’s Potential and Capabilities. It was chaired by Rear Adm AN Pramod, ACNS (Air), Naval HQ.

Gp Capt Sudhir Verma, Retd, Aerial IQ India discussed ‘Atmanirbharta in UAS Technology.’ He recounted the journey of Aerial IQ in the manufacture of drones. He mentioned that reaching the desired capability takes technology and time. So, significant effort and time have to be spent on the research and development of UAVs. He further discussed the support provided by the Government of India to drone startups mentioning that this will boost indigenous manufacturing, and the drone certification scheme to ensure safety and quality requirements are a few positive steps taken by the government in favour of the Indian drone industry. Gp Capt Verma discussed Aerial IQ’s initiative to develop tethered drones, which is unique and has had considerable sales due to its great potential. He highlighted that Aerial IQ is totally indigenous with the aim to make drones that fit into the requirements of the industry.

Ravi Hazarika, Sales Director, PBS India gave a talk on “PBS Engines for Unmanned Aerial Systems.” He explained the company’s focus on in-house development, production, testing and certification of turbojet, turboprop and turboshaft engines. He further elaborated that the company has expertise in engine testing. Discussing PBS TJ40-G1, he highlighted that it can be used with the hybrid electric motor. This is basically a turbojet engine that is meant for UAV systems, such as target drones and decoy drones, which also has low weight as one of its qualities. The company has also produced PBS TJ80, having the best thrust-to-diameter ratio. It is a turbojet engine designed for missiles, target drones and UAVs. The PBS TJ150 by the same company is a turbojet engine having higher thrust and a smaller diameter. It is light in weight with a powerful thrust of up to 1500 Newton along with low fuel consumption.

Col KV Kuber, Director Defence and Aerospace, E&Y gave the “Industry Perspective on UAS.” He mentioned that high economic growth in India has boosted the country’s entire UAV/Drone startup ecosystem. Further highlighting that co-production was the key for Atmanirbharta, he mentioned that this would help in reducing the input cost. So, there is a need to involve private industry in R&D. He highlighted that Atmanirbharta also meant that whatever indigenous products that any company produces should have the ability and confidence to improve on it on a much larger scale. He elaborated on ongoing drone initiatives in Indian firms like HAL and Adani Defence. He also spoke about India’s UAS exports like the Garuda drone which is exported to Malaysia. He stressed that while capability development can be done through technological developments, capacity building will be achieved through a robust industrial framework. He defined exports to be numerators, and production to be the denominator. According to him, a healthy balance between these two means a state of mutual interdependence, where a greater denominator reflects lacking abilities and the presence of vulnerabilities.

Session 4— Innovations and Research & Development

The theme of their session was Innovations, Research & Development. It was chaired by Cmde Vivek Dahiya, Cmde (SR), Naval HQ. The session focused on discussing the phenomenon of disruptive technologies taking over and becoming mainstream.

Chandreyi Suhas, Scientist F, ADE, DRDO gave a presentation on ‘Latest developments in UAVs.’ Briefly mentioning the future battlespace which will comprise manned, unmanned and hybrid aerial systems, she discussed in detail ADE’s product portfolio, including Pilotless Target Vehicles (Lakshay), Nishant SR-UAV, Panchi UAV and Rustom-1 (Short Range UAV for Reconnaissance). She also highlighted the aero materials, especially composites, strike aircraft variants, cruise missiles, aspects of stealth/ low observability technologies, RCS reduction technologies and radar absorbing paints.

Ashish Sharma, Director, WB Electronics, India, gave a brief overview of WB Electronics, India. He emphasized the company’s areas of activity which are crucial for the transfer of technology. He discussed in detail the Topaz Integrated Combat Management System, U-GATE Dismounted observation and unmanned system, and other systems offered by WB Electronics.

Wg Cdr Anand Pethia, Retd, Adani Defence and Ido Lichter, Vice President, UAS Engineering, Elbit Systems together gave a talk on ‘Evolution of Unmanned Aerial Systems from Segregated to Un-segregated Airspace.’ Pethia stressed on the importance of shifting focus from fighter operations to UAS, which will help to bridge the shortage of squadrons in a two-front war. Pethia elaborated on ‘the India Drone Rules 2021’ and explained how authorities are opening up the skies for drone testing in limited airspace. Ido underlined the importance of military certification, core standards of certification, the basis of certification, and why “certification is not enough and being ‘certified’ is now needed.” Further, Ido emphasized on the need for rigorous testing for building standards to reach a mature level of conformity.

Col Rajan Desai, Col Artillery & Aviation, Army Design Bureau, spoke on ‘Swarm Drones’ and brought out the enhanced significance of indigenous swarm drone technologies, highlighting the advantages of cost and operability, that have been observed in recent deployment scenarios. He underlined the design gaps of the drone industry which included the inability to test in high altitudes and extreme terrains. He elaborated that the Indian government is supporting the domestic start-up ecosystem through various policies, competitions and initiatives.

Wg Cdr Sarang Vashisht, Air HQ, discussed the ‘Meher Baba Swarm Drones Competition’ which began in October 2018, to honour Late Air Cdr Meher Singh, DSO.

Session 5—Counter UAVs

The theme of this session was “Counter UAVs”. It was chaired by Air Vice Marshal Rakesh Sinha, ACAS Operations (Offensive), Air HQ.

Brig Manish Kumar, Brig (Ops & C2), Army Air Defence Directorate, presented his views on ‘Countering the UAV Threat.’ He spoke on the significant targeting and destruction of drones in recent conflicts between Armenia-Azerbaijan and Russia-Ukraine. He emphasized the ‘urgent vs important’ aspects in the development of counter-drone capabilities and the key precepts of the UAS like the command-and-control systems, SATCOM, telemetry, navigation, positioning, and means of propulsion. He also explained the mitigation philosophy based on the threat environment and the importance of control through a centralized structure.

Azeez P, Scientist F, LRDE and V Kishore Kumar, Scientist D, DLRL, DRDO, together spoke on the DRDO developed ‘D-4 Anti-drone System.’ The speakers explained the Drone Detect, Deter and Destroy system (D4S) – the first indigenously developed anti-drone system to be inducted into the Indian Armed Forces. While highlighting the usage of counter-drone technology for surveillance to identify and mitigate through hard and soft-kills, the speakers also delved into the basic issues faced by the counter-drone systems, which included the size of drones and the importance of automatic classification between drones and other entities. Their discussion also highlighted challenges like detection effectiveness, false positives and false negatives, collateral damage and signal disruption.

Air Marshal Anil Chopra, Director General, CAPS gave the Closing Remarks and Maj Gen Ravi Arora, Chief Editor, Indian Military Review gave the vote of thanks.

Report prepared by: Dr. Anu Sharma, Dr. Ngangom Dhruba Tara Singh, Divyanshu Jindal, Prachi Lokhande and Jay Desai.

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A drone or a drone system references the broader ecosystem that involves the unmanned vehicle(s) along with a few other components. Such components include an autonomous or a human operated control system from the land, sea or air and a command-and-control system in order to link them together coupled with a maintenance and operating system. Drones as a segment require significant research and development efforts. Being a fast-evolving area, there are frequent technological upgradations both in capacity as well as capability. It is therefore imperative to have a focused approach towards R&D efforts in drones. With an ever-increasing utility matrix for drones, the application areas are gradually moving towards infinite. In India, while there are many private industry players also who are investing time and money in this segment, DRDO has been leading some of the most critical research efforts in this segment. With a focus on responsibility and accountability, DRDO has been pushing boundaries and now more than ever is poised to lead the country’s R&D efforts in this segment. R&D for development of robotic products and technologies associated with robotics & artificial intelligence interface are undergoing. In this regard, a national challenge was also initiated by DRDO to tap talent in robotics and artificial intelligence among students, academia and entrepreneurs /industry in the areas of robotics related to defence.

Over the past few years, drones have become central to the functions of various businesses and government organizations and have managed to pierce through areas where certain industries were either stagnant or lagging behind. From quick commercial deliveries at rush hour to scanning unreachable military bases, drones have proved and continue to be extremely beneficial in unreachable and low connectivity areas for timely and efficient deliveries.

A UAV for instance is a powered, aerial vehicle without a human pilot which uses aerodynamic forces to fly and fulfill “dull, dirty or dangerous” tasks. The applications of a UAV pan across sector and geography serving commercial, scientific and security requirements among others. With the ability to reach inaccessible areas, UAVs hold the potential to be omnipresent across sectors, ranging from military and civil, and are disrupting every workflow including data capturing, goods delivery, area mapping among others. Few of the more critical application areas of UAVs include surveillance and offensive operations as well as for assessing damage, deliver aid and locate victims at the time of natural disasters.

In addition, DRDO Young Scientist Laboratory for Asymmetric Technologies has been working on drone swarm technologies towards strengthening the asymmetric warfare capabilities. For UAV swarm-based applications to be most effective, a key component is the communication system shared by the drones as well as the base stations on the ground. In line with this requirement, DRDO last year demonstrated an operational decentralised swarm of 25 drones with minimal human intervention. This capability was demonstrated as part of a three-day function, linked to the ongoing celebrations marking the 75th year of independence, in Jhansi in November last year. The capabilities showcased included both communications, defensive as well offensive features including distributive sensing, decision making, reconfigurable path planning and autonomous attack. The algorithms with the drones are reported to have advanced features arming the swarm with niche capabilities, distinct from individual drones.

The Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), for instance, is a key aeronautical systems design lab of DRDO involved in the development of UAS and systems for manned aircraft including simulators. ADE’s areas of work include:

•  UAV aerodynamics, structures, propulsion systems, flight control.
•  Combat aircraft systems.
•  Micro air vehicles.
•  Flight simulation.
•  Air weapons integration and
•  Aerial image exploration.

The capabilities existing at the DRDO lab include among others prototype and manufacturing engineering facilities, electronics package facility and real time simulators. Similarly another DRDO lab, the Center for Airborne Systems (CABS), is also involved in development of key technologies and infrastructure including ground exploration systems, IFF capability as well as other systems and sub systems required to build efficient platforms for the purpose of surveillance.

DRDO has designed and developed drones for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, target acquisition / tracking and image exploitation such as Nishant, Panchi, and Rustom II, a medium altitude long endurance UAV built for the Indian armed forces. In fact, the Netra mini quadcopter UAV, which has received orders from the Indian Army, was also jointly developed by DRDO and Idea Forge after which the latter took up production of the same.

DRDO has also worked towards design and development of target drones including Fluffy, Ulka, Lakshay-I & 2 and the latest Abhyas for autonomous flight with the help of an autopilot. ABHYAS – the High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) is a 75kg drone designed & developed by DRDO’s ADE, Bengaluru and can be used as an aerial target for testing and evaluation of various missile systems. The performance of Abhyas was monitored through telemetry and various tracking sensors including Radars and Electro Optical Tracking System (EOTS). Launched using twin underslung boosters which provide the initial acceleration to the vehicle, Abhyas is gas turbine powered which helps it in sustaining a long endurance flight at subsonic speed. Other technologies that Abhyas is equipped with include a MEMS based Inertial Navigation System (INS) for navigation, a Flight Control Computer (FCC) for guidance and control, a laptop-based Ground Control Station (GCS) to monitor and monitor navigation of the autonomous flight. Once equipped with better design, reliable sensors and other multifunctional abilities, the variants or upgrades of Abhyas could potentially have much more powerful utility and more high-end capability.

DRDO has also undertaken a wide array of technology enabled initiatives in coordination with Armed Forces, startups, MSMEs, private sector and academia. The anti-drone technology, including the capability elements of detection, tracking, surveillance and both hard kills (laser-based hard kill to destroy the drone) and soft kills (for jamming the communication links of drone), have been developed and transferred to industries for mass production. In fact, the defence forces have reportedly signed a contract with BEL Electronics1 last year for supply of DRDO technology based anti-drone system called the Drone Detect, Deter and Destroy System (D4S).

Drones are globally utilized across industries for varied uses with the perspective to either increase work efficiency, enhance work productivity, decrease workload, reduce production costs, improve accuracy or to resolve security issues on a large scale. Adoption of the drone technology across industries has exponentially increased in the last few years as more and more industries and businesses have realized the potential, scope and scale these systems bring to the table. Whether controlled by a remote or accessed via a smartphone app, drones are capable of reaching the most remote areas with little to no manual intervention and hence require the least amount of effort, time, and energy. This results in saving operational costs as well. This is a primary reason why these systems are being researched and developed for both military and commercial reasons. There are multiple areas where DRDO is researching in the unmanned space. With aerial unmanned platforms at advanced stages of development and or production, ground and underground unmanned vehicles are also being researched and developed upon. DRDO labs including the VRDE with their MUNTRA UGV (which is a BMP Class vehicle converted into an autonomous one) or DAKSH (battery operated autonomous robot primarily for bomb recovery) are involved in the design and development of such systems.

To summarize, the defence sector has seen many technological breakthroughs which have totally transformed the dynamics of the battlefield. There is significant design and development that is and will continue to be required if India is to stay ahead of the curve. It is important that the design and development capabilities in the country be continued to be enhanced organically or inorganically. This would require both the government and the industry working together. There is enough business case and opportunities in unmanned vehicles to justify an efficient R&D investment by both the government as well as the industry. This decade is very critical in many aspects, and it will be important for India to be able to lead the global developments in the unmanned space.

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The drone is a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAS), with a maximum take-off weight of 150 kg and empty take-off weight of 58 kg. The craft comes integrated with an indigenously developed radio communication system and Inertial Navigation System (INS) with anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities, making it operational in jamming and GPS-denied environment as well.

The drone’s batteries can give minimum 30 minutes of endurance with a communication link encryption (128 AES) for 50 km – 200 KM. The endurance can be enhanced as per the application.

The water and dust proof Bharat 150 can be used in the temperature range of -30°C to 65°C with an average speed of 50 Km/h and a gust resistance of 15 m/s. It can operate at 1000 m above the take-off ground and is designed to work at 5500 m ASL.

It’s autonomous and electronically stable design makes it suitable for application in Logistics, Search and Rescue, Signal Intelligence and communication intelligence, ISR, Loitering Munition for warhead dropping etc.

Commenting on revelation of the drone, Mr. Rajinder Bhatia, President and CEO Bharat Forge Defence, said, “We are extremely proud to have developed Bharat 150, a state-of-the-art Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. These indigenous achievements further reinforce our commitment towards making the country more self-reliant, additionally the drone can be used across multiple sectors with varied requirements. We are optimistic about its performance and hope for a speedy induction.”

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The sixth edition of Defence India Startup Challenge (DISC-6), launched by the Defence Minister on April 22, calls upon the industry to develop a hand held, hard kill, counter-UAS system. DISC is a platform under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence that offers specific projects to the industry, particularly start-ups, to develop technological solution and products for the armed forces.

According to parameters listed in the document, the self-contained system should be man portable and be operable by a single person besides having a range greater than 300 metre and capable of repeated use in quick succession.

Further, it should not require any special skills and training for neutralizing the drone and the provision of aiming and neutralising should be very simple and achievable with minimum training.

The system is meant to intercept and destroy small low flying drones that have miniscule radar, thermal or acoustic signature and are primarily used for surveillance and cross border smuggling or can be used to carry out a terror strike, as was experienced at the Pathankot airbase in Punjab last year.

Punjab and Jammu regions remain vulnerable. According to data available with the Border Security Force, there were 100 drone sightings along the western border in 2021, out of which 67 were in Punjab followed by 24 in the Jammu Sector. This year there have already been over half a dozen engagements with drones, with some reports claiming that an IED that exploded near Jammu on the day of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally is believed to have been dropped by a drone.

While the capability to detect and counter large unmanned aerial vehicles exits, detection of small drones is very difficult and at present depends primarily on visual sightings or audio hearing. Troops engage small drones with standard rifles, which is difficult.

Two basic options to neutralize drones are the soft kill, which relies on jamming or hacking the target drone’s radio signals, or the hard kill which requires the drone to be physically destroyed by ordnance or lasers.

The armed forces as well as paramilitary and police organisations are laying great stress on the induction of anti-drone systems. Besides procurement of some foreign systems, several projects are underway to develop different indigenous systems to counter various types to drones.

Over the past few years, there have been several reported instances where drones have been used to smuggle arms and ammunition as well as narcotics into India. Employment of drones for surveillance and recce in border areas is also a regular feature. Border guarding forces have been modifying their operating procedures to tackle hostile drones.

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These handheld anti-drone guns will be useful for patrolling teams in border areas who sometimes see drones flying but could not do more as it was out of their firing range. In 2022 alone so far, around 60 drone sightings of unmanned aerial vehicles near Punjab were reported and many more remained unreported.

Anti-Drone Gun should be hand-held, easily transportable and operable in day and night environment. The system should be easily deployable with ease and should be a lightweight Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) countermeasure solution designed for one hand or two hand operations.

The system should be able to cut off communication between the visually detected UAV and the remote controller by jamming data links to the UAV/RC. In terms of operational capability, it should be capable of neutralizing the flying object (UAV) or group of UAVs (Swarm attack) from a distance (as specified or better) of at least 2,500 metres. “The gun should be capable to neutralize the flying object by jamming its radio and GPS links and force landing the UAV at its place of operation within 10 seconds after detection,” the BSF document sent to the Home ministry reads.

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The notification comes days after the ministry of civil aviation issued the drone certification scheme on January 25 to stipulate minimum safety and quality requirements to boost indigenous manufacturing. The certification scheme will help in simpler, faster and transparent type-certification of drones.

Since August last year, the government has issued liberalised drone rules, a drone airspace map, extended the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme to drone manufacturing and introduced a single-window DigitalSky platform to help the drone manufacturing industry grow.

According to the government last year, the domestic drone manufacturing industry is expected to grow from a combined turnover of about ₹80 crore to ₹900 crore in three years.

On September 16 last year, civil aviation minister JyotiradityaScindia said the combined turnover of the drone sector – hardware, software and service delivery – was expected to grow to about ₹ 12,000-15,000 by 2026. The government says India has the potential to become a global drone hub by 2030.

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“These handheld anti-drone guns will be useful for patrolling teams in border areas who sometimes see drones flying but couldn’t do more as it is out of their firing range,” said a senior BSF officer.

“Anti-Drone Gun should be Hand Held, easily transportable and operable in day and night environment. The system should be easily deployable with ease and should be a lightweight UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System) countermeasure solution designed for one hand or two hand operations,” he added.

The system should be able to cut off communication between the visually detected UAV and the remote controller by jamming data links to the UAV/RC.

In terms of operational capability, it should be capable of neutralizing the flying object (UAV) or group of UAVs (Swarm attack) from a distance (as specified or better) of at least 2,500 metres.

“The gun should be capable to neutralize the flying object by jamming its radio and GPS links and force landing the UAV at its place of operation within 10 seconds after detection,” the BSF document sent to the Home ministry reads.

This year around 60 drone sightings of unmanned aerial vehicles near Punjab were reported and many more remained unreported. The explosives and small arms were dropped using drones from the Pakistan side on Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab border.

The intelligence agencies have alerted security forces regarding drones capabilities of terror groups across the border and even in Naxal areas. The majority of drones are being used to drop weapons in the Punjab and Jammu sectors.

A senior BSF officer said that last year they have shot down a variety of drones. Some of the drones (hexacopter) can carry much load as the controller sits across the border and achieves the objective without crossing the LoC. The made in China drones are advanced in technology and their memory gets deleted remotely and they can never get anything out of it.

“Entire border can’t be covered under anti-drone devices but handheld anti-drone guns with the patrolling team could help to detect and bring down the drone,” said the BSF officer.

Another BSF officer added that these handheld anti-drone devices will be part of patrolling teams and will be much more effective than presently used immovable anti-drone measures.

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Undoubtedly, countries are investing large sums for R&D and procurement of the unmanned combat aerial systems (UCAS). The US Air Force received the prototype of the vehicle-mounted C-UAS – High-Energy Laser Weapon System (HELWS) in 2019. As per the Congressional Research Service paper of Jan 2021, the US Army as well as the US Navy, is working on the development of computer-enabled C-UAS products in collaboration with the Defense Digital Service. As per the Navy Technology news of 17 Mar 21, the US Navy is set to deploy the Optical Dazzling Interdictor, (ODIN) and the High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) in 2021. It took the delivery of HELIOS from Lockheed Martin for testing in January 2021. Lockheed Martin is also developing a 60kW laser weapon system combining multiple fiber lasers to counter drone attacks. Further, ICARUS system, a cyber solution to combat small drone threats, has also been developed.

The race to the swift has nations vying for leveraging the 5G spectrum, since the space to render effective counters to the UAS will vacillate across the electro-magnetic spectrum, utilizing both passive and offensive measures. The range includes radar systems, microwave weapons, jammers, directed energy weapons, swarms riding artificial intelligence and autonomous systems. The cocktail is indeed a heady mix, but it also reflects the lethal operating milieu that militaries will need to contend with in not too distant a future.

Transformational Technologies

Presently, the established means to neutralize UAS is by resorting to physical downing means. Millimeter wave (mmW) radar along with data fusion methods are considered promising trends in the future. Due to the low footprint and low collateral damage, Hacking and Spoofing have emerged as a promising negation solutions, though a package to develop mature scalable, modular and affordable solution is a while away.

AI and ML in the domain of C-UAS assists the human operator in the loop to overcome complexities of sheer volume and speed of an impending attack. The process combines data from multiple sensors and fuses output to be used collaboratively with available data. The database to train the algorithms for ML is extrapolated from existing radars. The decision matrix loop of an incoming attack is in seconds for the operator to detect, mitigate and neutralize the UAS. The dilemma lies in the threat assessment, which is eased by AI that helps improve quality and speed of decision-making.

To optimize the process from Detection to Strike, use of ‘Quantum Computing’ (QC) is also being envisaged. Though the concept is the nascent stage, as the method to leverage these ‘surge technologies’ by factoring life cycles and operationalizing paradigms is still being worked out. QC is considered ideal for detection of patterns and conjuring digital signatures.

What needs to be understood is that AI and ML is good to optimize processes (by training on the datasets to track/recognize the drones) and is ideal for detection; however, for initiating the Strike, the operator in the loop is mandated. This is to guard against cyber threat of a malware being introduced into the system that would generate algorithms, turning the weapon rogue. The scientific community is working on the intrigue of trying to ‘Program Common Sense’, as it were. The approach being adopted by countries on the throes of developing Counter-UAS technologies using AI and ML are:-

• Focusing on the ability to democratize data and use it to generate intelligence.

• Enhance decision making by assisting human operator in the extremely short time critical window.

• Develop infrastructure at the ‘Edge’ to transform data collected into intelligence/ insight.

The ultimate aim of the C-UAS philosophy is the safe integration of the UAS into the airspace. Methods of detection and mitigation overlap and are often combined to provide a more effective and layered capability.

Policy Basket

Whilst, technological advances in AI, QC and Robotics are transformative, they also pose considerable threats and risks regards ethics, privacy, security and sovereignty, that countries developing these technologies require factoring.

The policies for export of weapons-grade technology followed by China and Russia are fairly accommodative when compared to the control regimes that the US has bound itself by. The Conventional Arms Transfer (CAT) Policy, revised in 2018 aims to preserve U.S. national security, its economic security, strengthen strategic U.S. allies, and perpetuate the U.S. military’s technological edge in line with its other international trade policies. The International Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) to which Washington voluntarily adheres, provides a framework of understanding amongst states aimed at limiting the proliferation of missile technology with payload and range of the rockets and UAVs of at least 500 kgs and 300 kms, respectively.

Turkey joined the MTCR in 1997 but China does not participate in the initiative. US intends to institute reforms to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) that would provide a level playing field and allow it to compete with countries that diluted arms export restrictions, especially with respect to drone exports. The debate in the US rages between the aspects of diluted control for equivalence in the economic security and national security and the jury is still out with the Biden administration considering its pros and cons.

India promulgated the rules for UAS titled, “Unmanned Aerial Systems Rules-2021” on 12 Mar 2021. The rules list out the category of UAS and modalities for permits and licence applications and penalties for non-compliance. The civil aviation ministry has also promulgated the UAS National Traffic Management Policy spelling out the architecture, concept of operations and deployment plan for enabling UAS Traffic Management (UTM) ecosystem in India.

Doctrinal Precepts

India and the US have signed four significant foundational agreements reinforcing military cooperation. Progress made by the US in the UCAS domain will assist India leverage the development at some stage. According to Janes, India is the world’s third largest armed force and third largest defence spender after US and China. In the midst of a large military modernization drive, with the indigenous defence industrial bases having been put into motion with a corridor each in the Indian states of UP and Tamil Nadu, the Defence Acquisition Procedure-2020 classifies Capital Procurement under a new category – “Buy (Global – Manufacture in India)” – with minimum 50 per cent indigenous content. The UCAS from any of the Indian allies may be routed through this category.

The air and ground radar package must include low power, low signature KU-band radars, networked by AI compute, made resilient through redundancy, looking at all angles, capable of simultaneous detection and tracking multiple threats (essentially a guard against swarms). The inclusion of directional radio frequency inhibitor in the process would mitigate the UAS by instituting loss of control thereby denying, deterring or disrupting an impending threat. If the electronic counter-attack is insufficient, the kinetic hard-kill option still exists due to the layered approach across the full kill-chain.

Own vulnerabilities must be assessed, factoring AI and ML. A 360-degree cardinal situational awareness, layered with sophisticated AI facilitated techniques to deduce swarm objectives and threat mitigation needs to be propagated. International cyber attacks either through nations or through organizations, leveraging the power of AI can have catastrophic impact on society. Juxtapose this with lethal autonomous weapons and the problems get accentuated.

UCAS is not a silver bullet but a natural corollary to the evolution of UAS continuum. Nagorono-Karabakh was the real conflict experience for the U-CAV. At different levels of operation, the integration levels preferred are:

• At the technical level, there is a requirement of multi-domain solutions.

• At the tactical level, there is greater requirement of integration to develop a common operational picture to avoid fratricide.

• At the operational level, there is requirement of a seamless integration of the UCAS with existing capabilities.

• At the Strategic level, there is a requirement of whole of the government approach. The entire gamut of actions from Prevention (that stresses on the EW signals to Intelligence) to Situational Awareness (that legislates detection, tracking, classification and identification) to Response (by defeating, deterring, destruction or capturing) and to the post event analytics (or PSDA); the entire flow chart of activities is constructed and these precepts incorporated in the CUAS operational strategy.

The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Bipin Rawat, during a webinar on ‘Shaping the Armed Forces to meet likely current and future challenges’ at the Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi, on 7 April, spelt out the emerging paradigm to be adopted by India and he stated, “Future battles requires us to confront the growing capabilities of our adversaries, i.e., the hybrid imprint, collusive support and threat posed from emerging technologies. Needless to say, we cannot fight the next war premised on the experiences and structures of the past wars. The keystone to the way forward is by joint-ness, integration and modernization by imbibing technology in line with the changing security environment and utmost optimization of resources generating greater combat effectiveness”.

Out of the world glare, India has donned the ‘Green (creativity) Hat’ from De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats to try new ideas and perspectives – something vital for assuming leadership in the global context. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), as part of it next generation Combat Air Teaming System (CATS) has unveiled the Air Launched Flexible Asset (ALFA-S) swarming drone system to penetrate contested airspace. Remember, a swarm itself maybe used as an effective C-UAS against a swarm attack. The approach is collaborative with the USAF’s ‘Air Force Research Labs’ joining the bandwagon with India.

A layered approach with integration of different systems is ideally suited for the Indian approach. Since C-UAS needs to be factored into the air defence philosophy at the Service level, the announcement of an Air Defence Command, as part of the overall theaterization, synergizing all resources under direction of a single theater commander augurs well for the concept. The system must be capable of detecting – tracking -identifying – deterring and ultimately defeating an incoming attack. The strategy must be based on an ‘autonomous’ model with fused systems, capable of more than one vector response, used proactively. It is a concept that needs incorporation sooner than later.     (Concluded)

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That the world is riding into a ‘Geo-political flux’ is hardly an intelligent statement to be making these days. Power-play manoeuvres are being initiated at multilateral levels – between nation states and across domains; from military to economic, diplomatic, space and cyber amongst others, to either establish supremacy or have the target nation accede with threat of punitive action. Moves to leverage and posture own national assets to safeguard interests either by forging strategic alliances or through regional constructs are the order of the day. Technology is playing greater role in tipping the balance than was earlier envisaged. With this great power competition has emerged the rise of both high and low-end threats that call for a whole of the nation approach to deal with.

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) are nobody’s exclusive preserve. Today, Gen-Z, through the sheer power of their imagination and result-oriented research has galvanized the concept of flying. Technology has further acerbated the utility and with a few alterations to the aerodynamic and software parameters can mutate the airframe to a lethal military grade weapon. By description, UAS includes both Drones and UAVs and the operators controlling them. Just a couple of months back, the Indian Army exhibited the offensive capability of a Swarm of 75 Autonomous Drones with distributed intelligence and Edge computing, destroying a variety of simulated targets including kamikaze attack capabilities during the Army Day parade in New Delhi in January 2021. The capability also exhibited enhancing and reducing the size of the swarms as per operational requirements.

India, due to its geographic location has been touted as a land of opportunities, threats and paradoxes. The Indian vision is intrinsically linked to its regional aspirations and safeguarding its own national security interests. The implications are instructive and include maintenance of territorial integrity both from external and internal threats, security of the vital Sea Lines of Communication (SLOC) and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). It’s focus and importance was highlighted, on 8 April, in some ways when USS John Paul of the US Seventh Fleet forayed 130 nautical miles west of the Lakshadweep Islands, inside India’s EEZ, without requesting India’s prior consent, “consistent with international law” amidst much consternation from the Indian Security establishment.

Former US Secretary of Defence, Mark Esper, in a statement at the Air Space and Cyber conference, on 18 Sptember 2019, said, “the conveniences of today’s battlefield will not be the realities of the future.” The underlying message that lay there in pointed, amongst others, to the ever-evolving threats from UAS. Just when the world was awe-struck by the maturation of the UAS, another voyage beyond the final frontiers was being undertaken in the realms of counter-UAS.

Developmental Helix

Development of any ‘Counter-Technology’ goes through an iterative spectrum process from ‘Inactivity’ (solution thrust upon, often with disastrous consequences), ‘Reactivity’ to ‘Pre-activity’ and ‘Pro-activity’ (resultant solution best suited to meet developing threats). Employment of UAVs is perceived in multiple roles. With varied armed configurations, armed drones or Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UVACs) are capturing the fancy of nations. Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 UCAVs used in 2020 in the Nagorno-Karabakh war, created history in the disputed region by use of UAVs. War planners across the world have been forced to take a serious note of these weapons, their characteristics and wartime outcomes. The punch that the concept packs for surprise and damage, justifies its utility for scaling and is now an important resource for force planning and packaging.

On 14 September, drones were used to attack the Saudi state-owned Aramco oil facilities leading to a global surge in the crude oil price around the world.

On 1 January 2020, Gen Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian commander, was killed by a US drone strike at Baghdad airport. Some of the other headlines that captured the imagination of the world read – “Trump’s plane was nearly hit by a small drone”, “Ex CIA official warns of Iran, ISIS drones armed with chemical weapons”, “Warning over terrorist attacks using drones given by EU Security Chief”, “Gatwick drone disruption cost over £50 mn” and so on.

Smaller UAS, at times operating as swarms, are becoming the popular weapon of choice. Evolutionary developments in its design and utility to target important communication nerves without collateral damage, something borne in contact warfare, reflects its scalability. When relevant associated sciences like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning (DL) algorithms that offer disruptive outcomes are juxtaposed into the concept, the results become reverberant. Today, the UAS propel the users to a whole new level of Information, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) and strike capabilities. Professional armies need to be alive to this capability, be agile and pivot its advantages.

Though handled at tactical levels, the resource is strategic in its application. Grouping of UAVs in force planning is a necessity for all war entities. Based on weight, they have been categorised into Nano, Micro, Mini, Small and Large UAVs. Also, based on their operational range they are either High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) or Medium Range Long Endurance (MALE) UAVs. Medium range ones are Tactical UAVs and the ones with smaller range are in the Mini and Nano categories.

An in-depth understanding of the characteristics, maturation level and manifestation of the drone architecture, consisting of the unmanned aircraft itself, the ground control station (GCS) and the communication data link (CDL) is necessary to design an effective C-UAS. The C-UAS for desired effectiveness must proliferate domains, technologies, operating frequencies, articulation, manifestation and orchestration and transcend interoperability and synchronization across military systems and organizations. Notably, all UAVs are drones, however, not all drones are UAVs. ‘Counter Drones’ is a science that is fast being developed as the anti-thesis to the still evolving concept of UAS.

Counter-UAS

A C-UAS system can be defined as a mechanism capable of lawfully and safely disabling, disrupting, or seizing control of the UAS. The rapid rise of commercial and military grade technologies including autonomous operations combined with concepts such as ‘Swarming’ and ‘Multi-Modal Operations’ (MMO) requires the development of effective and advanced C-UAS systems. Today, UAS are available to state and non-state actors and individuals. These systems are a low-cost, yet effective means of conducting ISR missions. The operating philosophy of C-UAS includes both detection and mitigation. To placate the palate of the ‘Techno-Doctrinaire’, both techniques are explained in some detail.

Detection Methods

Algorithms fuse data from multiple sources to produce accurate and efficient data for credible detection. Detection is undertaken through the following means:

• Electro-optical, infra red or acoustic to detect target by visual, heat or sound signatures, respectively.

• By use of radar systems. However, accuracy of the system on UAS with smaller surface area is suspect.

• By using radio frequency sensors to identify the wireless signals for control of UAS.

Acoustic Detection. Machine Learning (ML) techniques have been leveraged to classify UAS from the audio data. The signal fingerprinting of the UAS engine is constructed and analyzed. Using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN), detection is transformed to a binary classification for precision in identification. The technology is yet to achieve maturation, as the nature of acoustic approaches is a limiting factor, which at some stage will be addressed by ML.

Passive RF Detection. All UAS employ Radio Frequencies (RF) data link to its Command & Control (C2). The detection of UAS is derived from the spectral patterns of transmission using Software Defined Radio (SDR) receivers. Spectrum patterns are dependent on telemetry protocols that introduce errors in detection. True fix on the UAS is offered by unique signature study and vibration along with patterns of the transmitted wireless signals.

Vision based UAS Detection. Vision based detection technologies focus on Image Processing (IP). Videos and cameras are used in capturing rogue UAS images. Using computational methods, the ground station figures the appearance of UAS from the videos and pictures. The process introduces inherent challenges of distinguishing background signals from foliage and flying birds Image segmentation methods us Neural Networks (NN) to identify the UAS. A twin approach leverages the Thermal Camera to detect the UAS and NN to identify the UAS. An algorithm operating on an embedded system identifies the UAS in movement and the datasets of the pictures and videos train the algorithms to be discerning the UAS from the background. Evolution of Deep Neural Networks (DNN) in processing of image facilitates UAS detection and hold tremendous potential.

Radar based UAS Detection. Radars like Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW), amongst all the sensors have the advantage of being time and weather agnostic. As per its principle of operation, they measure the range and velocity to provide detection.

Mitigation Methods

Mitigation technologies include the physical capture or jamming of the UAS. Jamming either through the RF Command and Control (C2) or the Global Positioning System C2 Jamming or Spoofing. UAS can also be neutralized or destroyed using guns, nets, by use of Eagles, Directed Energy or through traditional Air Defense systems. The criterion for use is ‘low cost per engagement’ and ‘least collateral damage’.

Physical Capture. In the physical capture of the UAS, soldiers fire projectiles through guns, which has nets stored in the warhead to capture a flying UAS. Directional Electromagnetic Pulse is also used to disable the control system.The method primarily focuses on disabling the mobility of Drone and control system and has the advantages of easy manipulation, lightweight and quick assembling. Itis efficient and low cost, but not pilot friendly.

Jamming. Another approach at mitigation is to jam the system or sensors rendering the UAS inoperable by the flight controller. This is the most common method at neutralizing an incoming attack. The defenders leverage signal to noise to interfere in the operation of UAS for neutralization.

Exploit Vulnerabilities. This deals with prioritizing the controls by either exploiting the vulnerabilities in the system by either use of GPS or sensor technology to alter existing protocols to control the drone and land it safely for subsequent analysis.     (contd in May 2021)

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