New Delhi: As an unidentified flying object, suspected to be a drone, was reportedly spotted over the official residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital yesterday, the need for counter-drone system has again come to prominence.
The Counter Unidentified Aerial Vehicle or C-UAV systems work on the principle of detection–identification–engagement or neutralisation. In military, this is also known as the DIE concept.
The first stage of Detection is the most critical stage in DIE, which involves using one of the techniques of radar frequency (RF), electro-optical (EO), infrared (IR), acoustic, or combined sensors detection.
The second stage of Identification requires creating, maintaining, and frequently updating a library of communication signatures, flying patterns, and shapes to correctly identify the drone.
The last stage of engagement or neutralisation involves several technologies, divided into hard-kill and soft-kill options.
India has developed one such indigenous counter UAV system. Grene Robotics has designed and developed the country's first autonomous drone defence dome called Indrajaal.
According to the company, an Indrajaal unit has the capability to autonomously protect an area of 1000-2000 sq km against threats such as UAV's, incoming weapons, loitering munitions, and Low-RCS targets.
For the first time in India and many times, globally rogue forces have adopted cutting-edge technologies such as UAV's, Smart Swarms, etc. Jammu Air Base on June 27th was attacked by such technologies to drop explosives next to the Mi-17 hangar.
A minimum of 300 systems are required to be deployed to protect the entire western border and this is financially not a viable option. On the contrary, 6-7 sectorally deployed Indrajaal systems with their seamless connectivity can protect the entire western border.
Autonomous defence or Weapon Systems is the 3rd revolution of warfare. Indrajaal's design principles are based on delivering such autonomy to the defence forces. It leverages a combination of 9-10 modern technologies that are powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), cybersecurity and robotics.
Indrajaal is capable of identifying, assessing, deciding, acting and evolving autonomously in real-time. Whether the threat is single or multiple or a combination of UAVs, Low-RCS, Loitering munitions and such, Indrajaal is capable of countering all such threats.
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