Latest news with #DefenceResearchandDevelopmentOrganisation
India.com
a day ago
- Business
- India.com
Project Kusha: Indias Indigenous S-400-Style Air Defence System To Be Ready Soon
Taking a giant leap towards self-sufficiency in defense technology, India is designing a locally developed long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) system similar to Russia's S-400 under Project Kusha, an all-India collaborative project by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). The native system is being developed to resemble the performance of the Russian-produced S-400 Triumph, which had lately come into action during Operation Sindoor, when Indian military forces were able to intercept more than 300 Pakistani drones and missile attacks following terror activities from the other side of the border. Project Kusha Timeline And Scope As per The Economic Times, the indigenous system's prototype is likely to be completed within the next 12 to 18 months. The user trials could then be stretched over 12 to 36 months to test operational effectiveness. BEL, one of the main defence PSUs that is engaged in air defence systems such as Akashteer, is also developing essential subsystems of Project Kusha, such as advanced control systems and radar technologies. BEL Chairman and Managing Director Manoj Jain replied on the March quarterly earnings call that the company is waiting to hear regarding the choice of a system integrator and would like to be among them if two are chosen by the government. NDTV Profit said Project Kusha had the potential to yield a Rs 40,000 crore defence order, making it a flagship project of India's missile defence capabilities. S-400 Triumph Still Relevant India had signed a USD 5.4 billion deal with Russia to buy five S-400 systems in 2018. So far, three have arrived, while the fourth is due next year and the fifth will come in 2026. Meanwhile, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will travel to Moscow from May 27 to 29 to attend the 13th International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues. He will be required to advocate for the early delivery of the rest of the S-400 systems. BEL's Other Defence Projects Besides Project Kusha, BEL is also undertaking the QRSAM system's development. Negotiations are on to close its contract, and a specialized team has been constituted to complete the project, which is likely to create orders worth Rs 30,000 crore. "We are the production agency for QRSAM, so the order will come to BEL," Jain stated. Operation Sindoor: Air Defence In Action During Operation Sindoor, India struck back at the April 22 terror strike in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam—which killed 26 people—by carrying out precision attacks on nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The Indian Air Force had fielded the S-400 system along with local missile defences such as Akash, Samar, Barak-8, and anti-drone capabilities through the Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS). The S-400 system's superior radar and engagement capabilities made it capable of countering aerial threats up to 400 km away, reiterating its strategic value. As India keeps ramping up its defence readiness in the face of regional security threats, Project Kusha is a key step towards indigenisation and technology independence in air defence. The success of this indigenous S-400 substitute has the potential to radically change India's strategic independence in missile defence capabilities.
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
DRDO signs licensing agreement with NIBE Ltd for Pinaka MBRL and Battery Command Post
DRDO has signed a technology transfer agreement with NIBE Limited for the Pinaka MBRL and BCP, aiming to boost indigenous defence manufacturing. This follows DRDO Chairman's call for increased R&D investment to enhance India's defence capabilities and exports. He also lauded the armed forces and Indian industry for their contributions to recent successful operations and economic growth. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The Defence Research and Development Organisation ( DRDO ) on Friday signed a Licensing Agreement for Transfer of Technology (LAToT) with NIBE Limited for the Pinaka Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) and the Battery Command Post (BCP).The agreement aims to strengthen the industrial base for the development and manufacturing of indigenous defence equipment In a post on X, DRDO stated, "In an effort to enhance the industrial base in development and manufacturing of indigenous defence equipment, Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE), DRDO signed Licensing Agreement for Transfer of Technology(LAToT) of Pinaka Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL) and Battery Command Post (BCP) with M/s NIBE Limited, Pune."According to a release, the Pinaka MBRL is a state-of-the-art indirect fire weapon system engineered to neutralise area targets with high precision and rapid to launch 12 rockets from a stationary, inclined position, the system offers swift deployment and exceptional accuracy, making it highly effective against time-sensitive and critical enemy and ruggedized, the launcher is built to withstand cross-country mobility and diverse environmental conditions, ensuring reliability in demanding operational scenarios, the release signing of this agreement comes a day after DRDO Chairman Samir V Kamat urged the Indian industry to significantly increase investments in research and development to strengthen India's indigenous defence capabilities."We need to invest more in research and development. Today, we spend 5 per cent of our Defence budget on R&D. The Raksha Mantri has promised us that in the next five years, this will increase gradually to 10% of the Defence budget," Samir V Kamat said at the CII Annual Business Summit 2025 on Thursday."You can't afford to fight future wars with past technologies. If you have to win future battles, you have to invest in R&D within the country," he congratulated the armed forces for the success of Operation Sindoor."Let me place on record the DRDO appreciation of the armed forces' efforts in conducting operations very successfully. I would also like to congratulate the Indian industry for helping us and producing the equipment they (Armed Forces) could use successfully during this operation," he said."I would like to congratulate the Indian industry for contributing significantly to making India the fourth largest economy in the world," he highlighted the importance of working towards advanced technologies for cutting-edge systems."Technological changes are galloping. Although manufacturing is required, without the ability to design and develop your systems, you will always have systems that are not cutting-edge systems. We are not the leading R&D nation in the world at the moment. So we will have to catch up, which can be done by using the new emerging technologies," Kamat said India's progress in Research and Development will not only strengthen its defence ecosystem but also expand defence exports. "We will work with you closely to make India a leading R&D country where people look to us for new innovations in defence technologies. If that happens, our exports will also increase.""We will be at a position where our enemies would not want to deal with us in any form of war, and we can then grow economically at a much faster rate with our focus on lifting the country to become a developed country, which is the vision of our Prime Minister by 2047," he said.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Autonomous warfare in Operation Sindoor
Launched in early May, in retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Operation Sindoor marks a historic milestone, in which Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) played a primary role in direct military combat between two nuclear-armed neighbours, signalling an uncharted era of drone-centric warfare in South Asia. Over four days of hostilities, both sides effectively rewrote their rules of engagement, ushering in a 'new normal' of airborne deterrence without pilots, but with autonomous platforms, armed drones and loitering munitions, all operating below the threshold of a full-scale war, and shaping a calibrated, escalation-managed conflict. In the 48 hours preceding Operation Sindoor, Israeli Heron MK-II and indigenously designed TAPAS-BH-201/ Rustom-II-Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are believed to have flown deep into Pakistani airspace to gather electronic and signals intelligence and thermal signatures of suspected Islamist terror camps. Thereafter, from May 7 onwards, after the Indian Air Force (IAF) attacked nine targets inside Pakistan, both sides employed a broad spectrum of UAS — from ISR UAVs to armed drones, kamikaze loitering munitions, electronic decoys and quadcopters — as dual-purpose tools for real-time intelligence gathering and precision strikes. And as this drone war intensified, both countries sought to dominate the battlespace through persistent aerial surveillance by mapping out enemy air defences, missile batteries, command centres, troop clusters and logistical nodes. Decoy drones too were widely employed to spoof radars, 'bait' air defence systems and exhaust interceptors, minimising risk to manned assets, before ceasefire ensued on May 10. India's array of aerial systems In the intervening period, India claimed to have downed some 600 Pakistani drones, releasing intercepted footage and wreckage to reinforce its assertions in a high-stakes information war, paralleling the kinetic exchanges. Pakistan, in turn, alleged that 300–400 Indian drones had unsuccessfully targeted its military and strategic infrastructure, before being shot down. India has neither confirmed nor denied these avowals, citing Operation Sindoor's enduring operational status for its silence. Open-source intelligence and drone-tracking data, meanwhile, revealed that India's offensive against Pakistan featured a diverse UAS inventory. It was spearheaded by indigenously developed loitering munitions like the GPS-guided Nagastra-1 and Israeli-origin Harop drones, capable of autonomously homing in on enemy radar systems. To overwhelm Pakistan's air defences, India also deployed swarm drone formations developed jointly by the Defence Research and Development Organisation and private contractors to create radar clutter, trigger premature defensive responses and saturate surveillance networks. Priority targets included ammunition depots, Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) batteries, radar sites, and forward operating bases. The strikes were delivered in carefully sequenced waves. Initial sorties deployed decoy drones and electronic warfare payloads to saturate radar coverage and provoke early, albeit futile SAM launches. These were followed by precision loitering munitions and armed UAVs, guided in real-time by Heron MK IIs and TAPAS-BH-201/ Rustom-IIs. Quadcopters and micro-UAVs played a critical role in relaying live ISR feeds and target acquisition data via the Army's Integrated Battle Management System (IBMS) to forward units, ensuring dynamic targeting and reaction. Notably, media reports claimed that India's drone strikes disrupted a cricket match in Rawalpindi, forcing a stadium evacuation due to air defence alarms. Another significant Harop strike, reportedly destroyed a Chinese-supplied HQ-9 air defence system near Lahore, delivering both a psychological blow and a strategic setback to Pakistan's layered air defence shield. Consequently, military analysts noted that India's overwhelming use of varied UAS to deliver calibrated, cross-border strikes without risking manned aircraft, represented the emerging regional model of deterrence. They said it also visibly showcased India's growing competence in autonomous, cost-effective, and networked warfare, demonstrating a significant shift in the balance of aerial power in South Asia. Pakistan's retaliation Pakistan, for its part, in its reactive Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos (wall of lead), deployed a range of UAS, including its indigenously developed Shahpar (feather)-II MALE UAVs, armed Burraq (lightening) drones, Turkish-origin Bayraktar TB2s, and Chinese-supplied CH-4 and Wing Loong II platforms. These assets were complemented by CH-901 and WS-43 loitering munitions from China and domestically produced kamikaze drones, launched at multiple targets across a 1,500-kilometre expanse, stretching from Kashmir in the north to Bhuj in the west. While the Shahpar-IIs, TB2s, and Wing Loong IIs primarily conducted ISR missions — streaming real-time imagery of Indian troop concentrations, artillery positions, and logistics depots — Pakistan's loitering munitions targeted radar stations, forward operating bases and critical Army and IAF command nodes in the northern and western sectors. However, these attacks were effectively neutralised by India's robust, multi-tiered air defence grid, inflicting minimal or no damage at all. Strategic urban and military infrastructure hubs — including Jammu, Pathankot and Amritsar in Punjab, Bikaner and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, and Bhuj in Gujarat — too were frequently targeted. But despite the density of these assaults, India's integrated air defence network —comprising layered radar coverage, SAM batteries, automated threat-response mechanisms, and upgraded Cold War-era legacy platforms and systems — mitigated damage, preventing disruption. India's multi-layer air defence system Pakistan repeatedly sought to probe and bring to heel India's Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) — its air defence nerve centre — by launching drones via varied routes, altitudes and diverse timings, to disrupt its communication nodes and forward-deployed command centres, albeit unsuccessfully. The IACCS fuses surveillance inputs from ground-based radars, airborne early warning and control platforms, satellites, and other sensors into a centralised but distributed command-and-control network. It integrates with SAM systems and fighter aircraft, enabling the rapid detection, tracking, and interception of low-altitude threats, including UASs. Its built-in mechanisms ensured continuity of operations, even if any individual nodes were damaged, jammed or destroyed. Pakistan attempted to overload the IACCSs radar coverage, confuse response loops, and expose vulnerabilities for follow-on drone or missile strikes. However, military officials confirmed the IACCS's core network remained intact, with all and any temporary disruptions swiftly mitigated through alternate data links and pre-positioned mobile radars. Analysts further noted the system's 'mesh' architecture allowed seamless failovers when nodes were hit, with satellite uplinks and mobile platforms sustaining full situational awareness. The IACCS also displayed its Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs) capability in which high-powered lasers or microwaves, via a real-time network, detected, tracked and neutralised airborne threats like drones speedily. Complementing the IACCS at the tactical level was the Akashteer (Sky Arrow) air defence control and reporting system, developed by Bharat Electronics Limited, which provided a digitised command layer for Army Air Defence units, enabling seamless coordination between sensor units and weapon platforms. Designed to rapidly disseminate targeting data and manage low-level threats — including UAVs — it ensured that frontline SAM units could engage targets with minimal delay, even under electronic warfare or communication stress. The accompanying air defence shield was built around a layered architecture combining retrofitted legacy Low-Level Air Defence (LLAD) systems with advanced missile platforms in an unparalleled innovative mix that remains a hallmark of the Indian military's improvisation. Ingeniously upgraded with radar-directed fire capability and electro-optical sights, Cold War-era systems from the early 1960s, comprised the LLAD network for close-in protection against drones. These included Pechora and OSA-AK SAM systems and ZSU-23-4 Shilka, ZU-23-2 twin barrel 23mm anti-aircraft (AA) guns from Soviet times, and the L/70 Bofors 40mm AA platform dating back to the 1940s. Army and Border Security Force snipers too were part of the LLAD structure, shooting down numerous incoming drones in Jammu, Punjab and Rajasthan. These 'heirloom' LLAD platforms were supplemented by the Israeli SPYDER short and medium-range air defence missile system using Python-5 and Derby missiles for point defence against UAVs, cruise missiles, and aircraft. A new kind of war The domestic Akash and Akash-NG (New Generation) missile system provided medium-range coverage, while the long-range Barak-8, jointly developed with Israel, defended high-value assets and strategic nodes from aircraft, drones, and ballistic/cruise missiles. These were all backed by Russia's Almaz-Antey S-400 'Triumf' self-propelled surface-to-air missile system — renamed Sudarshan Chakra — one the world's best, of which India had acquired five units for $5.5 billion in October 2018 and, so far, taken delivery of three. All these systems were centrally integrated through the IACCS, enabling coordinated, real-time responses and full-spectrum aerial threat mitigation. In conclusion, Operation Sindoor was not merely a skirmish; it was a seismic shift in which two nuclear-armed rivals stepped into the age of autonomous warfare, where deterrence is digital, and dominance is algorithmic. And as the smoke subsides, one truth remains: the next war will not begin with a soldier's charge, but with the silent whir of drones in the sky. Rahul Bedi is a veteran journalist based in New Delhi and Chandigarh specialising in military, defence and security matters.
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Stealth fighter prototype to fly in 2029: DRDO chief
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief Samir V Kamat on Thursday said the first prototype of a stealth fighter being developed by India will make its maiden flight in 2029. 'The development of AMCA (advanced medium combat aircraft) will be completed by 2034 and it will go into production a year later,' he told reporters on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry event. His comments came two days after India unveiled its long-awaited plan to fast-track the development of AMCA --- an indigenous fifth-generation stealth fighter, and announced that the execution model will be competitive and provide equal opportunities to public and private sector firms to participate in the project. The approval of the industry partnership model by defence minister Rajnath Singh came at a critical moment as state-run plane maker Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) --- the sole manufacturer of fighter jets in the country --- was so far believed to be the front-runner for the project. On Thursday, Singh said the AMCA execution model was a 'bold and decisive step' that will take the domestic aerospace sector to newer heights. 'Under the AMCA project, the plan is to develop five prototypes, which will be followed by series production. It is a key milepost in the history of the Make-in-India programme,' Singh said at the CII event. The DRDO's Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) will execute the programme through industry partnership. The model unlocks new possibilities for the local aerospace industry, including firms such as Tata Advanced Systems Limited, Larsen & Toubro, Adani Defence and Aerospace and the Mahindra Group. To be sure, HAL is still a strong contender for the project. This could become the private sector's finest hour, chief of the air staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said at the same event. 'If today somebody is manufacturing world-class cars, electronics, and equipment in the civil sector, why can't some of those industries come together and say, 'We will make world-class military equipment even if it doesn't give me the profit I am looking for.' Let's rise together to make this nation a great nation,' he said. Speeding up the AMCA programme is critical as China has already deployed the J-20 fifth-generation fighters, it is rolling out the J-35 stealth fighters that Pakistan is looking at buying, and it has tested two so-called sixth-generation platforms designated J-36 and J-50. Last year, the PM-headed Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approved the AMCA's design and prototype development at a cost of around ₹15,000 crore. This involves the design and development of five twin-engine AMCA prototypes. The IAF's modernisation map envisages the deployment of around 120 stealth fighters (six squadrons) 2035 onwards, with the advanced planes forming an important element of future air combat.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
'Military equipment got war-tested': DRDO chief says defence exports to go up after Operation Sindoor
DRDO Chairman Samir V Kamat on Thursday said he was hopeful that defence exports will increase after Operation Sindoor as indigenous military equipment has got "war-tested". Interacting with reporters on the sidelines of the CII Summit here, he also spoke about the recent clearance given by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to the "execution model" to design and produce India's ambitious fifth-generation stealth fighter jet -- the advanced medium combat aircraft ( AMCA ). "By 2034, the development work should be completed, and after that production should start from 2035. The first prototype flight will be ready by end of 2029," he said. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Elegant New Scooters For Seniors In 2024: The Prices May Surprise You Mobility Scooter | Search Ads Learn More Undo The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief said that in this execution model of AMCA which has been approved, "HAL can bid, private sector can bid, they can also bid as a joint venture". "So, this will open up participation of the private sector for fighter aircraft development," he added. Live Events The execution model approach provides equal opportunities to both private and public sectors on a competitive basis, the Defence Ministry had recently said. When asked if Indian defence exports will see an impact in the wake of Operation Sindoor, the DRDO chairman said, "After Operation Sindoor, I am very hopeful that defence exports will increase because these equipment has got war-tested. So, countries will show interest in acquiring them." Indigenously developed Akash missile system and Akashteer air defence system were some of the key military assets deployed by India during the recent four-day military confrontation with Pakistan. Kamat also acknowledged the role of the Indian industry and academia, and said, "we have to achieve complete 'Atmanirbharta' in future". India has been working on the ambitious AMCA project to develop the medium weight deep penetration fighter jet with advanced stealth features to bolster its air power capability. AMCA along with the Tejas light combat aircraft are planned to be the mainstays of the Indian Air Force. The defence ministry on Tuesday said Singh has approved the execution model for AMCA that will be developed by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) in cooperation with industry partners.
