India is developing SHIELD, a sophisticated high-power microwave evaluation system designed to test how drones, sensors and communication systems respond to intense electromagnetic energy.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation is leading this effort to pinpoint which electronic components fail, malfunction or survive under microwave exposure.

This will help India harden its own systems and shape future directed-energy counter-drone capabilities against threats from China and Pakistan. Importantly, SHIELD is not a battlefield weapon yet; it is a test facility that will inform India’s future counter-drone warfare.

SHIELD stands for S-band High-Power Microwave Integrated Evaluation System for Lethality and Damage. It is being developed under DRDO’s Technology Development Fund scheme, with Indian industry partners invited to build the system.

Its purpose is to evaluate how high-power microwave radiation affects sensitive military electronics such as drones, sensors, radars, communication nodes and command links under controlled conditions.

The technology relies on indigenous Gallium Nitride solid-state power amplifiers, which offer high efficiency, compact size and superior thermal performance compared to silicon-based systems. The design is modular, scalable and drone-mountable, capable of pulsed-mode operation to simulate varied tactical scenarios.

The system matters greatly for India’s defence. By mapping failure modes such as temporary upset, system reset or permanent burnout, India can redesign or shield its own electronics to withstand microwave attacks.

Data from SHIELD will guide the design of future directed-energy weapons and non-kinetic counter-swarm systems tailored to regional threats. It also accelerates indigenous directed-energy and electronic-warfare technology, reducing reliance on foreign systems.

However, SHIELD remains an evaluation and testing infrastructure, not a deployable battlefield system. Its role is to generate empirical data needed to design, validate and harden future microwave-based counter-drone and electronic-warfare platforms.

Gallium Nitride amplifiers make SHIELD more powerful, compact and reliable. They deliver far higher output power and efficiency than older silicon or GaAs-based amplifiers, while handling heat better and operating across wider bandwidths. GaN can deliver roughly five to ten times the power density of GaAs and significantly more than silicon LDMOS, allowing SHIELD to generate intense microwave pulses from a smaller, lighter package.

GaN power amplifiers routinely exceed 70–80% power-added efficiency at microwave frequencies, meaning more DC power is converted to RF output and less wasted as heat. With high thermal conductivity, especially GaN-on-SiC substrates at around 390–490 W/m·K, GaN devices dissipate heat more effectively, sustaining high-power pulsed operation without rapid degradation.

GaN’s breakdown field is about ten times that of silicon, enabling higher operating voltages of 28–50 V and thus higher peak power in compact solid-state modules. GaN supports operation from S-band up to Ka-band and beyond, giving SHIELD flexibility to test different threat spectra and future directed-energy concepts.

Lower peak operating temperatures and robust material properties improve device lifetime under repeated high-power pulsing, which is critical for a test rig that must run many cycles. These advantages allow SHIELD to achieve required field strengths with fewer modules, lower power draw and better thermal margins, making the evaluation platform more scalable, mobile and suitable for field trials.

SHIELD is being developed by DRDO under its Technology Development Fund scheme, with the actual system to be built by Indian private industry partners including Start-Ups, MSMEs and defence firms selected through a Request for Proposal. DRDO is the lead agency, issuing the RFP and overseeing requirements, testing and integration.

The project is funded under the TDF, which is designed to push industry-led defence innovation from concept to engineered prototypes. Industry partners will design and deliver the GaN-based high-power microwave evaluation platform.

DRDO sets the technical specifications, validates performance and integrates SHIELD into its test infrastructure, while the selected industry partners develop the hardware, amplifiers and control systems. In short, DRDO is the program owner and technical authority, while Indian industry is the developer and builder.

IDN (With Agency Inputs)