Drone Announcements:

a) Drone Mahotsav - Become a World Leader in Drones by 2030. Look at the adeptness and smoothness with which @narendramodi is flying this drone. As a pilot and a Drone pilot I can tell you this, his control over drone is superb

70 exhibitors will display various use cases of drones at the Drone Festival.

Display of a ‘Made in India’ Drone Taxi prototype - The ePlane Company

b) TechEagle collabs with India Post to deliver mail through drone in Gujarat - Kutch region of Gujarat in less than half an hour, travelling a distance of 46 km, with a five-times faster speed than surface transportation, the deep-tech drone technology startup said in a release.

c) Adani Defence Systems and Technologies Limited said it will acquire 50% stake in General Aeronautics Private Limited - does Drone Design services and has an Agri-drone product. Since 2016 - they have an agri drone sprayer and a software that helps the drone pilot map and do the spraying. Also have designs of other drones that Emergency Medical Delivery Services (EMeDS) program, the drone is designed to deliver Active Bleeding Control (ABC) kit up to 15 km distance in about 10 minutes. Also have some AI platforms that do vague things.

Adani Defence has established India’s first unmanned aerial vehicles manufacturing facility, India’s first private sector small arms mancturing facility and is currently in process of setting up India’s first comprehensive aircraft MRO facility in Nagpur. With the emerging threat of rogue drones, we have taken an initiative of implementing counter drone systems for both defence & civil applications.

d) Ambani and Adani in race to be No. 1 in civilian drone - Jio Platforms bought Asteria Aerospace. Adani Defence and Aerospace head land systems Ashok Wadhawan start manufacturing a logistics drone capable of carrying a payload of 120kg - market for agri drones.

Adani-Elbit Advanced Systems India, a JV of Adani Group and an Israeli company, was one of the 14 beneficiaries of the Government PLI scheme for Drone manufacturing. This JV was behind manufacturing a high-altitude India-made drone being used for reconnaissance at the tense Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.

“"Government may release names of Drone PLI beneficiaries ahead of 30 June deadline, source tells Zee Business””

Drones Manufacture In India: Does PLI Make It Attractive Enough?

They have a drone manufacturing unit in Hyderabad. The company also announced that they are initiating the largest export of mini-UAVs from their plants

e) This increased focus on drone technologies by India comes amid their enhanced centrality in conflict. In the Russia-Ukraine conflict, drones have played a central role for both reconnaissance and attack purposes.

In the Indian military, the ethos around drones is seeing a change. In the Army, the drones used to be earlier operated by the artillery, but it is now for the Army Aviation Corps to ensure the optimised usage of drones.

In September last year, in a span of less than two weeks, the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force signed multiple contracts worth over Rs 500 crore in the sphere of drone technology with the focus on Indian companies. Include those for buying kamikaze drones or loitering munitions to swarm drones with both kill and surveillance capability besides counter drone systems.

A loitering munition (also known as a suicide drone or kamikaze drone) is an aerial weapon system category in which the munition loiters (waits passively) around the target area for some time and attacks only once a target is located.

NewSpace Research & Technologies Pvt Ltd won a $15 million swarm drone order from the Indian Army. Run by former IAF officer Sameer Joshi. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. is supporting NewSpace research and Techologies in development of the drone swarms.

Laesen & Turbo (L&T) signed an MoU with the startup NewSpace Research & Technologies (#NRT) for the development of a new range of submarine-launched UAVs.

Drone lightshows have a central computer on the ground tracking every single drone and moving them all in unison. The drones’ movements are dictated in a complicated and detailed version of air traffic control which is calculated so that the flightpaths stay separate and no collisions occur. The individual drones take no part in the decision-making process.

True swarm behavior arises from a simple set of rules which each of the participating members follows, with no central controller.