How India's Indigenous 'Drone Dome' is Taking Shape
With drones becoming a weapon of choice in modern conflicts like the India-Pakistan face-off last month and the ongoing Ukraine conflict, New Delhi is betting big on counter-drone systems.
SputnikKiran Raju, CEO and Co-founder of Indrajaal Drone Defence India, told Sputnik India that drones are unmanned and autonomous, free from the physical and psychological limitations of human-piloted systems, stressing that modern warfare no longer hinges on human courage.
"Unlike bombs and missiles, drones offer precision and control. In the spectrum of warfare, drone-based combat is undoubtedly a more measured and responsible alternative to nuclear conflict," Raju said. "Drones can reduce the loss of unnecessary human life in more ways than one."
Apart from affordability, what's really making drones game-changing is the strategic asymmetry they create, he added.
An armed force doesn't need Air Force superiority any more to cause serious disruption. A well-placed drone strike or even just drone surveillance
can alter the tactical equation dramatically, Raju said
The agility, scalability and deniability of drones drives their adoption. Drones can be launched from anywhere, reach targets that are otherwise inaccessible and be operated by individuals, not armies.
In swarm formations, they can overwhelm traditional defences. And in peacetime they offer critical ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) without provoking open conflict, he explained.
"What we're seeing globally and in India is a shift from conventional combat systems to distributed, autonomous platforms," Raju stressed. "Drones are just the beginning of that shift. That's also why counter-drone systems like Indrajaal are no longer optional. They're now a critical part of national security planning."
Last month's India-Pakistan standoff made it very clear that the two nations are no longer on a conventional battlefield, he argued.
Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs)
aren't experimental, they're operational. Perhaps more concerning is how the aerial theatre is being influenced by satellite-driven intelligence, especially from foreign nations.
Pakistan's leverage of China's space-based ISR assets to close its kill chain is a wake-up call for India, Raju warned.
India's trajectory until now has been cautious, but it's changing. The armed forces are taking steps to build its own constellation of ISR and navigation satellites and the Indian Air Force has spoken about expanding to over 100 military satellites in the next few years, Raju said.
India is still building capacity, but the pace needs to be faster. That is where the private sector becomes crucial, not just for building drones or satellites, but for the ecosystem around them, including space-based command, targeting and counter-drone defence, he pointed out.
"At Indrajaal, we see ourselves as part of this new security grid. While India develops offensive and surveillance capabilities in the drone space, someone has to secure the airspace below," Raju stressed.
"Our systems are designed to create that low-altitude protective mesh to defend against swarms, autonomous drones, or coordinated ISR attacks," he added.
"The more space-based and drone-heavy warfare becomes, the more critical our work gets. We're not just reacting to today's threat, we're building the infrastructure to protect against what's coming next."
Indraajal Infra, the company's premier counter-drone system, is "already operational at a strategic naval port in Gujarat" and is also being deployed at the Karwar base of the Indian Navy in Karnataka, which is the country's largest naval facility.
Securing naval installations has been a key milestone for Indrajaal—not just technically, but symbolically. The company's systems are being
entrusted with guarding the country's most sensitive areas.
Those bases are high-value, high-risk assets, especially as surveillance from space and sea increases, Raju stressed.
He noted he capabilities of satellites like Yaogan-41, aChinese military geostationary Earth observation satellite which gives continuous, geostationary coverage over India's waters.
"Persistent visibility makes the nation's naval and industrial infrastructure incredibly exposed," Raju said.
"Indrajaal's plan moving forward is twofold," Raju explained. "First, it is expanding horizontally, deploying Indrajaal across more coastal and port assets, energy corridors and border-facing industrial hubs. Second, it is scaling vertically by building interoperability into these systems."
"That means allowing naval, air and civilian infrastructure to work with Indrajaal's network to create a real-time, shared airspace awareness grid," he added. "You can think of it as India's own 'Iron Dome,' but designed for the drone age."
The firm is also preparing for sea-based deployment, lightweight, containerised units that can be moved and deployed on ships or offshore rigs.
With maritime security becoming more integrated with space and drone surveillance, India can't rely on legacy systems alone. Indrajaal is stepping in to modernise that layer, Raju said.