Science and Technology › Defence technology
Military platforms, drones and new weapons
The platforms that carry military power, and new kinds of weapon: aircraft and their engines, ships and submarines, tanks and artillery, drones and counter drone systems, and directed energy and electronic warfare. Prelims has asked about fifth generation fighters, stealth and drone swarms.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2026: stealth technology, radar cross-section and radar absorbing material
- Prelims 2026: drone swarms and how they are countered
- Prelims 2025: unmanned aerial vehicles, their landing, hovering and power
15 Aug 2026 · Prelims and Mains
Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft engine
The Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) is India's planned fifth-generation fighter, a stealth design. The engine is the part it cannot yet be given at home, and in August a partnership to develop one was announced.
- Reliance Industries and Rolls-Royce announced plans to design, develop and manufacture an indigenous engine for the aircraft.
- They will also explore an aerospace gas turbine complex in India as a centre for propulsion technology.
- Bids for the AMCA's development were extended to 30 October 2026.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2024: which of the listed aircraft are fifth generation fighters
25 Aug 2026 · Prelims and Mains
Micro gas turbine engines
A drone or a compact missile needs an engine small enough to carry and cheap enough to lose, which is a different problem from powering a fighter. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research's National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL) unveiled three indigenous engines of that class.
- The NJ-05, NJ-50 and NJ-100 are rated at 5, 50 and 100 kg thrust.
- They are meant for tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drone interceptors and compact missiles.
PIB, 25 Aug 2026: CSIR-NAL unveils indigenous micro gas turbine engines (opens in a new tab)
18 Aug 2026 · Prelims and Mains
Rotating detonation engine
An ordinary engine burns its fuel steadily; this one sets off a shock wave and keeps it running round in a circle. An Indian startup demonstrated one at a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) facility in Hyderabad.
- A rotating detonation engine (RDE) burns fuel in a continuous detonation wave travelling around a ring shaped chamber, rather than by steady combustion.
- In theory its thermodynamic efficiency is 10 to 25 per cent higher, which suits rockets and hypersonic missiles.
- Sustaining a stable detonation, and finding materials that survive the heat, remain hard.
- Every such engine is still in research.
The Hindu, 18 Aug 2026: Rotating detonation engines: promise and reality (opens in a new tab)
18 Aug 2026 · Prelims and Mains
MQ-9B Sea Guardian
Watching an ocean is a matter of endurance rather than speed. India is taking that endurance on lease rather than buying it.
- The Ministry of Defence signed a contract with General Atomics to lease two MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones for the Navy, for 30 months.
- They are high altitude long endurance (HALE) remotely piloted aircraft, built to loiter at height for very long sorties and carrying advanced sensors.
- They are to strengthen maritime domain awareness and surveillance across the Indian Ocean Region.
PIB, 17 Aug 2026: MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones leased for the Navy (opens in a new tab)
1 Sep 2026 · Prelims
INS Nipun
A diving support vessel is built around pressure rather than firepower. Its work is to keep divers alive while they are down, and to be overhead when a submarine cannot come up.
- Indian Naval Ship (INS) Nipun, the Navy's second Nistar class diving support vessel, was commissioned.
- It follows INS Nistar, and like it was built by Hindustan Shipyard Limited.
- It supports saturation diving, so divers can work on the seabed for days at a time.
- Its hyperbaric lifeboat evacuates divers still under pressure, so an emergency does not force a rapid decompression.
- It is the mother ship for a Deep Submergence Rescue Vessel (DSRV), which rescues the crew of a disabled submarine.