Indian Air Force gains deeper insight into emerging homegrown technologies and solutions

New Delhi, September 16 (H.S.): The Indian Air Force’s ‘IAF Droneathon’ concluded on Wednesday at the Pokhran Range in Jaisalmer, providing domestic industry with an opportunity to demonstrate its capabilities and advancements in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (CUAS).

Designed to showcase emerging drone and counter-drone technologies, assess their operational capabilities and promote mutual learning, the event demonstrated how technological innovations can be translated into practical operational capabilities.

The event featured both static displays and live demonstrations, enabling the assessment of contemporary solutions in terms of their capabilities and effectiveness in combat scenarios. The demonstrations focused on areas including surveillance and reconnaissance, autonomous operations, swarm technology and electronic warfare.

Aligned with the national vision of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, Droneathon-2026 aimed to strengthen the indigenous defence ecosystem by bringing together industry experts, start-ups and innovators. The initiative seeks to help the Indian Air Force address emerging challenges while building a technologically advanced, indigenous and future-ready force.

The Indian Air Force is facing evolving security challenges in a rapidly changing operational environment. Against this backdrop, the ‘Droneathon’ is intended to bring together industry, start-ups and technology developers to demonstrate their capabilities in unmanned and counter-unmanned systems.

During the three-day event, the Air Force evaluated performance in surveillance and reconnaissance, autonomous operations, swarm technology and electronic warfare applications. The Droneathon also highlighted the Indian Air Force’s growing engagement with industry partners to accelerate capability development in unmanned systems.

Director General (Weapon Systems) Air Marshal Prem Kumar Krishnaswamy said Droneathon-2026 was not merely a technology exhibition but an effort by the Indian Air Force to engage directly with industry, start-ups and innovators to understand what they are developing.

He said the key objective was to assess how these platforms perform under actual operational conditions. The event brought together established defence companies, small-scale industries, start-ups and innovators, giving them an opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities their systems can deliver in realistic operational conditions.

He said the ‘Droneathon’ had given the industry a clearer understanding of operational challenges, while enabling the Indian Air Force to gain a better understanding of new technologies and solutions being developed in India.

The event, he said, underscored the need for a more innovative, self-reliant and technologically advanced unmanned ecosystem tailored to India’s operational requirements.

The Indian Air Force is keen to work closely with industry, start-ups and innovators to transform promising ideas into reliable operational capabilities for the Indian Armed Forces.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar