Indian Army And Drone Federation of India Sign MoU To Make Drones For Military Operations

Indian Army’s Army Design Bureau (ADB) and Drone Federation of India (DFI) have inked an MoU to make drones to be used in the Indian Army operations.

With this, the Indian Army aims to support the country’s drone sector and help it develop indigenous equipment as well as weaponry. 

Under the MoU, the two bodies will create a road map for making drones, counter-drones and allied technologies. They will conduct tech research programs with industry veterans, academia and the armed forces. In addition, they will carry out field trials of such developed drones. 

ABD is a nodal agency of the Indian Army. It facilitates research and development activities along with the industry, academia, DRDO and DPSUs. On the other hand, DFI represents the country’s drone industry. It amends drone-related policies, creates business opportunities, develops a skilling infrastructure, facilitates technology and knowledge transfers, brings standardisation, and promotes R&D efforts in collaboration with industry-academia.

Besides this, the Indian Army and DFI have also launched a drone programme called Him Drone-a-thon. The drone programme is a PAN-India initiative that connects all stakeholders of the drone industry including academia, software developers and drone product manufacturers. 

The newly launched programme will be carried out in various stages and scrutinised on various parameters including altitude, weight, range and endurance, among others. As per the programme,  the two bodies will initially develop logistics or load-carrying drones for high-altitude areas, surveillance and rescue drones and micro drones for fighting. 

These developments come at a time when the Centre is bolstering the country’s growing drone sector. Earlier this month, in a parliamentary meeting, the Centre informed that it has permitted private players to use drones for delivery purposes if they conform to Drone Rules, 2021.

During the meeting, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation General VK Singh said that the Centre is already using drone services for various purposes such as the delivery of vaccines, inspecting oil pipelines and power transmission lines and spraying agriculture fields, among others.

Besides this, the Ministry of Civil Aviation rolled out a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for drones and its components this year. 

Earlier, in an interview, DFI’s chief Smit Shah estimated that the Indian drone industry is projected to become an INR 50K Cr ($ 6.69 Bn) market by 2026.