Indian Armed Forces have raised concerns about drone swarm threat along the northern borders

A document circulated by Indian Army to Indian defence industry noted that a company in China set a drone swarm world record in September 2020 with 3,051 drones, and then surpassed it with a 3,281-drone swarm in March 2021. This is getting Indian Armed Forces worried about the new swarm drone threat along its northern borders. They have emphasised on the need to develop High Power Microwaves (HPM) weapons to counter a drone swarm. The document stated, “The Ministry of Defence needs to develop HPM to counter drone swarms in a platform that is small enough to be mounted on small platforms such as a tank, 4×4 trucks or small boats.”

A drone swarm is a group of drones that communicate and coordinate with each other. They are enabled by Artificial Intelligence, sensors, weapon systems, navigation technology, etc. A swarm consisting of hundreds or thousands of drones controlled by India’s enemies could pose a significant threat along our northern borders.

The use of drones in the Russia-Ukraine war is but a small glimpse of future wars where drone swarms will play a crucial role in surveillance, reconnaissance, and combat. They are ideally suited for striking high-value military assets, strategic installations, and even targeted killing.

Lt Gen Vinod G Khandare (Retd), Principal Advisor, Ministry Of Defence, calls it “the latest and most dangerous” threat.

Countering Drone Swarms

They can’t be countered by traditional kinetic means. Moreover, our Armed Forces are more geared up to pick up larger and faster aviation targets, not small and slow targets like a drone swarm.

“It can fly very close to the ground and, therefore, is very difficult to detect. Even if detected, it would only happen at a very short range. So, those being attacked by the swarm will only have a few minutes or seconds to react,” Tanmay Bunkar, CEO at BotLab Dynamics, told News9 Plus.

Thus, there is a need to develop a system that could detect small, slow, and low-flying drones.

“One of the key components of a counter-drone system are microwaves, lasers, and EMP systems. These are high-power systems, and they can be very effective, but they still need to be tested exhaustively,” says Smit Shah, President, Drone Federation of India.

“We have people working on ASR radars used to detect drones that do not have a radio signature. We have people working on RF-based detection technologies etc.,” adds Shah.

Where Does India Stand?

China is far ahead of India as far as drone technology is concerned. Pakistan also has an advantage because of its friendship with China. So, it is in fact a two-front threat for India. “If China’s inventory has drone swarms, it will come to Pakistan,” says Lt Gen Khandare.

We still have a lot of catching up to do. But India is aware of the high-tech advantage the adversary has and is working towards strengthening our defences.

Indian Air Force took an initiative in this direction in 2018 when they launched Mehar Baba swarm competition. More recently, a Bangalore-based start-up delivered drones to the Indian Army. This could be the world’s first operational high-density swarming UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) induction for military applications. The swarm of 100 drones can hit targets at least 50 km away into enemy territory.