THE CONTEXT: The May 2025 drone–swarm attacks during Operation Sindoor and Ukraine’s “Operation Spider’s Web” mark a strategic inflection point: inexpensive, expendable first-person-view (FPV) and loitering drones now threaten assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars and can be launched covertly from trucks parked deep inside hostile territory.
THE BACKGROUND: Post-1990 “network-centric warfare” sought information supremacy; the current shift is towards “algorithmic asymmetric warfare” where autonomy, swarming logic and edge-AI compress the OODA loop (Observe–Orient–Decide–Act). The cost–exchange ratio is flipped—a US$1 000 FPV can disable a US$200 million bomber.
WHAT, WHY, HOW:
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- What: Swarm drones are groups of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that communicate over encrypted mesh networks and make collective decisions.
- Why now: Mass availability of commercial quadcopters, 3-D printing, lithium-ion batteries, and open-source autopilots.
- How: Path-planning algorithms assign sub-missions; redundancy ensures mission success even if some drones are jammed or shot down.
TECHNICAL DETAILS & INDIAN SPECIFICATIONS:
| System | Role | Range/Area | Kill Options | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akashteer Air Defence Control System | Sensor–shooter integration for the Indian Army & IAF | 80 km bubble | Delegates to guns/SAMs | Operational since Apr 2025 |
| DRDO Anti-Drone | Point defence | Detect 4 km; neutralise 1 km | Jam-&-30 kW laser | Deployed at Jammu, 2025 |
| Indrajaal Infra Grid | Wide-area C-UAS (AI) | ≤ 4,000 km² | Jam, spoof, interceptor drones | Naval ports in Gujarat & Karnataka |
| Bhargavastra | Counter-swarm micro-rocket salvo | 5 km | Hard-kill rockets | Test-fired May 2025 |
| D-4 “Drone Detection, Deter & Destroyer” | Festival & base security | 5 km soft, 1 km laser | Jam & laser | Army, 2025 |
THE CURRENT SCENARIO:
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- The global market is projected to increase from US$14.14 billion (2023) to US$47.16 billion (2032).
- Operational lessons: Pakistan’s modest one kg-warhead quadcopters were jammed, but their sheer volume saturated radars and forced the Indian Air Force (IAF) to activate its Integrated Counter-UAS Grid across 15 bases.
SIGNIFICANCE FOR INDIA
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- Border security: Narco-terror groups in Punjab already use quadcopters; swarms add deniability and range.
- Strategic stability: Cheap attrition tools can tempt escalation below the nuclear threshold—a “Standoff 3.0” scenario.
- Industrial policy: Over 550 Indian start-ups now build drone or C-UAS subsystems; Atmanirbhar Bharat gets a tech boost.
INDIAN POLICY FRAMEWORK & GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES:
| Layer | Instrument | Year | Key Provisions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Civil | Drone Rules 2021 | 2021 | Self-certification, digital sky platform, zones. |
| Industrial | Import Ban Notification | 2022 | Prohibits fully built drones; free import of components. |
| Military | UAS Roadmap 2032 (classified extracts) | 2024 | Swarm logistics, ALFA-S air-launched swarm & AI-enabled edge compute. |
| Counter-UAS | Draft Tri-Service C-UAS Doctrine | 2025 | Layered kinetic + EW + DEW defences, common C2 architecture. (MoD statement) |
THE ISSUES:
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- Detection Gap: Plastic-bodied FPVs with low radar-cross-section evade conventional S-band surveillance.
- Cost Asymmetry: A single surface-to-air missile may cost 1 000 × the incoming drone’s price.
- Spectrum Congestion: Jamming neutralises drones but disrupts civilian 2.4/5 GHz communications around airports.
- Porous Borders & Urban Density: Trucks can launch swarms inside Indian territory, bypassing border sensors.
- Regulatory Overlap: MoCA (civil drones), MHA (internal security) and MoD (military) issue parallel advisories, causing gaps.
- Supply-Chain Dependence: Critical chips (RF, GNSS) are imported; export-control regimes can throttle spares.
- Ethical-Legal Grey Zone: Fully autonomous lethal swarms challenge international humanitarian law and attribution norms.
THE WAY FORWARD:
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- National C-UAS Grid: Integrate civil aviation radars, BSF forward-posts CCTVs into an Akashteer-like fused picture, using 5 G-edge analytics for sub-250 g drones; pilot in Punjab corridor by 2026.
- Micro-DEW Prototypes: Fund 30-kW solid-state lasers on Tata 4×4 chassis under iDEX; target unit cost under ₹25 crore to make ‘shot-per-rupee’
- Hybrid Kinetic Pods: Co-develop 20 mm programmable-air-burst guns with BEL for auto-fire atop metro-city police vans, linked to AI track-algorithms to avoid human latency.
- GNSS-Resilient Navigation: Mandate NavIC dual-band receivers and anti-spoof IMUs in all domestically produced drones by 2027, cutting import reliance on GPS chips.
- Spectrum Hardened Corridors: Allocate dedicated C-UAS EW bands (L & S) with geofenced transmit power caps, notified via DoT; prevents collateral jamming.
- Decoy & Honey-Net Strategy: Deploy radio beacons emitting fake command-and-control signals to lure hostile swarms into kill-boxes, reducing risk to civilian zones.
- Criminalisation & Licensing: Amend Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 to add “armed drone misuse” with a 7-year minimum sentence, coupled with an Aadhaar-linked drone ownership registry.
- STEM Workforce Pipeline: Launch “UAV Gurukul” under Skill India to train 10,000 technicians annually in drone repair and C-UAS ops, ensuring 24×7 readiness.
THE CONCLUSION:
Drone swarms have collapsed the entry barrier to precision strike. India’s rapid but fragmented progress—Akashteer in the skies, Indrajaal on the ground, and a liberal civil drone regime—must now be integrated into a cohesive “National Counter-Drone Shield” that is technologically layered, fiscally sustainable, and normatively responsible.
UPSC PAST YEAR QUESTION:
Q. The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by our adversaries across the borders to ferry arms/ammunitions, drugs, etc., is a serious threat to internal security. Comment on the measures being taken to tackle this threat. 2023
MAINS PRACTICE QUESTION:
Q. “The cost–asymmetry intrinsic to drone swarms is eroding traditional deterrence and air-defence paradigms.” Analyse with reference to Operation Sindoor. Suggest a calibrated counter-drone strategy for India.
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