The Indian Army inducted swarm drones systems to meet future security challenges. Indian Army inducted swarm drone systems. It can also be used during both offensive and defensive operations. Indian Army has procured swarm drones from two Indian start-up companies

New Delhi: The Indian Army has enhanced its drone capabilities by inducting swarm drone systems that can be used during both offensive and defensive operations.

The drone technology has proved to be a force multiplier in military operations, as evident from its application in various recent conflicts across the world. Even in our context, the recent incidents along the borders have seen a noticeable increase in drone-related incidents.


The application of swarm drones in various recent conflicts across the world, especially, in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Syria and strike on oil fields in Saudi Arabia and the recent Russia-Ukraine war clearly highlighted the potency of this niche technology.

A group of drones operating in conjunction with the ground manoeuvre forces will provide an aerial manoeuvre capability during both offensive and defensive operations, thereby enhancing the combat potential of the ground forces.

“We need swarm drones to provide tactical commanders with a force multiplier capable of providing surveillance inputs, undertaking close recce of a particular area to confirm inputs received from other ISR resources, engage varied targets like vehicles, artillery and air defence equipment, enemy command and control centres and opportunities,” read a statement released by the Indian Army.

The swarm drone system consists of a number of aerial vehicles which are artificial intelligence (AI) enabled and capable of communicating with the control station as well as among themselves. The AI-based swarming algorithms enable the swarm drones to automatically distribute the tasks among themselves, navigate to the area of interest, ensure collision avoidance during movement to the target area and carryout search of the area.

The AI-based Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) feature enables the drones to automatically recognise targets line tanks, gun, vehicles and humans and display them on the control station screen, thus minimising chances of the operator missing any target and also facilitating engagement by a suitable type of weapon platform.

“To induct this niche technology, the Indian Army has procured swarm drones from two Indian start-up companies. In addition, the Indian Army has also initiated a Make-II case, Autonomous Surveillance and Armed Drone Swarm (A-SADS) which includes a number of improvements and also a version for high altitude areas,” the statement added.

“This procurement is recognition of the Indian Army’s embrace of emerging and disruptive technologies to transform itself from manpower-intensive to a technology-enabled force to meet future security challenges”, read the statement issued by the Indian Army.