Page 32 - ADT NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2021 Online Magazine

Swarm Effort of the Air Staff presented the trophies to the
successful teams of the three-year long swarm
drone competition.

Newspace Research Technologies, a
Bengaluru based start-up received the award
for ‘Best Swarm Architecture’, while Dhaksha [ AIR SYSTEMS ]
THE INDIAN AIR FORCE IS BACKING Unmanned Systems from Anna University,
DEVELOPMENT OF INDIGENOUS SWARM DRONE Chennai received the award for ‘Best Drone
TECHNOLOGIES Architecture’. Delhi Technological University
and Flair Unmanned Systems were awarded
for the ‘Best Communication Architecture’ and
Special Correspondent Noida based startup, Veda Defence Systems
won the award for ‘Best innovation in Design.
These firms will now receive orders from the
In what is a novel approach in the Indian defence sector, the Indian IAF’s Base Repair Depots, which handle the
Air Force (IAF) is backing the development of indigenous swarm maintenance of air force aircraft and also
drone technologies and recently announced the selection of sev- undertake upgrade work on aircraft.
eral Indian firms who will now receive contracts for supply of swarm
drones to the IAF. Under the auspices of the first ‘Mehar Baba A live demonstration of the swarm drone tech-
Swarm Drone Competition’, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, Chief nologies under development also took place
in October at Air Force Station Yelahanka
in Bengaluru. The swarm drone capabilities
showcased comprised of three different air-
borne systems, mainly an airborne controller
drone operating in conjunction with multicopter
drones and smaller suicide drones. The Indian
Army had used 75 indigenously designed and
developed drones, during a similar live demon-
stration in January this year.

The selected firms put their swarm drone
capabilities to the test, during trials held at
the Pokhran test range in March. Over the
course of the course of evaluating the proto-
types at their ‘Air to Ground’ ranges, the IAF
performed the flying and technical evaluation
of the products being fielded products in a
realistic operational environment. The IAF had
sought to develop the indigenous capability
for a single drone operator to control up to 50
drones, each able to fly as far as 100km with a
1kg payload or warhead. An endurance of one
hour over a particular area of interest or target
was also sought.

Only Indian firms startups and firms were
allowed to participate in the competition with
the intent to evolve their own proprietary
designs for development, manufacture and
production of swarm drone technology to meet
the specific requirements of the IAF. The design
and development cost of their prototypes was
borne by IAF. The IAF led initiative was aimed
at unleashing the speed of innovation inher-
ent in start-up firms and the private sector to
quickly demonstrate their ability to provide the
service with "low cost - high impact" swarm
drone technology solutions.

32 | November / December 2021 WWW .GBP .COM.SG/ ADT