Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, represent a notable technological advancement whose utilisation and versatility have progressively expanded across various industries. The UAV market is presently undergoing rapid expansion, presenting India with a significant opportunity to establish itself as a global hub for drone technology.
However, there are concerns regarding the level of cybersecurity that are affiliated with the applications of drones. As a result, the government has imposed restrictions or prohibitions regarding the ownership of drones as well as their importation. In a similar direction, to provide a holistic approach regarding the security concerns regarding drones, a Hyderabad-based firm, Grene Robotics, has launched state-of-the-art anti-drone system ‘Indrajaal’ to facilitate the security challenges mounting with drones as a technology. As per the firm, the technology can be utilised not only to cover major installations of the country but even an entire city as its range is around 4000 sq. km as per the firm. It is said to be the first of its kind technology in the world, and if it succeeds, it will provide a great impetus to concurrent Indian defence capabilities.
Indrajaal is based on Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS), and in the last half-decade, significant strides have been made in the development of Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS), which are specialised tools designed to lawfully and safely neutralise or take control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This progress has been driven by extensive research efforts aimed at detecting and mitigating potential threats posed by UAVs.
Detection technologies in the C-UAS field have expanded considerably, drawing from various disciplines such as acoustics, computer vision, passive radio frequency monitoring, radar, and advanced data fusion techniques. These innovations have vastly improved our ability to spot unauthorised or unsafe UAVs in the sky.
Mitigation technologies, on the other hand, have evolved to include methods like physical capture and jamming. These mechanisms offer a means to counteract potential threats posed by rogue UAVs effectively.
Wg Cdr MVN Sai (Retd), CEO Defence, Grene Robotics said, “I urge the defence leadership to take an integrated and comprehensive approach against all the UAVs, loiter ammunition swarm drones and low RCS threats with indigenously developed Autonomous Defence Systems. Conventional defences will be overwhelmed in a swarm attack scenario, and an AI-Enabled Autonomous Dome with its ecosystem of sensors and processing is the way forward. The process of establishing a fully functional system is an evolutionary process and needs technology vision and user involvement.”
Earlier this year, Grene Robotics announced their partnership with (BEL) to jointly develop a first-of-its-kind Autonomous air defence technology, bringing India on par with the best autonomous defence systems in the world.
