Science and Technology › Defence technology
हिन्दी — Read in HindiMilitary platforms, drones and new weapons
The platforms that carry military power: 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.
Foundation note: Stealth: radar cross section and how to shrink it
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2025: unmanned aerial vehicles, their landing, hovering and power
Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft engine
Copy link to Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft enginePrelims and Mains
The Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft is India's planned fifth generation stealth fighter.
- The engine is the part it cannot yet be given at home: the Kaveri engine of the 1990s never reached the thrust a fighter needs.
- The first squadrons will fly on an imported engine while an Indian one is developed.
- A fighter engine must survive temperatures that only single crystal turbine blades can take, which is the technology India lacks.
What changed
15 Aug 2026BriefReliance 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 propulsion centre. The Hindu, 15 Aug 2026: Reliance and Rolls-Royce to co-develop AMCA fighter engine (opens in a new tab)
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2024: which of the listed aircraft are fifth generation fighters
Micro gas turbine engines
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A micro gas turbine is an engine of 5 to 100 kg thrust that powers tactical drones and interceptors.
- An expendable engine is built for one flight, as on a cruise missile or target drone.
- Both are engines India could not buy freely, which is why their development at the National Aerospace Laboratories and the Gas Turbine Research Establishment matters more than their size suggests.
What changed
25 Aug 2026BriefThree indigenous micro gas turbine engines were unveiled, NJ 05, NJ 50 and NJ 100, of 5, 50 and 100 kg thrust, for tactical drones, drone interceptors and compact missiles. PIB, 25 Aug 2026: CSIR-NAL unveils indigenous micro gas turbine engines (opens in a new tab)
23 Jul 2026BriefIndia's first indigenous expendable turbojet of the 350 kg thrust class, designed by the Gas Turbine Research Establishment and built by a private firm, was delivered. PIB, 23 Jul 2026: Successful development of first indigenous Expendable Turbo Jet Engine of 350 kg thrust class (opens in a new tab)
MQ-9B Sea Guardian
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The MQ 9B Sea Guardian is a high altitude long endurance remotely piloted aircraft, flown by a crew on the ground.
- It is built to loiter at height for sorties of a day or more with radar, electro optical and signals sensors, which is what maritime domain awareness across the Indian Ocean needs.
- India has ordered 31 MQ 9Bs under a 2024 contract, 15 of them Sea Guardians for the Navy.
What changed
18 Aug 2026BriefThe Ministry of Defence signed a contract with General Atomics to lease two MQ 9B Sea Guardians for the Navy for 30 months, to strengthen surveillance across the Indian Ocean Region. The Hindu, 18 Aug 2026: India to lease two Sea Guardian drones for the Indian Navy (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 17 Aug 2026: MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones leased for the Navy (opens in a new tab)
AI, drones and autonomy in warfare
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LeadDrones, autonomy and the cost of defenceJuly 2026
Why in news
Reports in July 2026 on the conflict between the United States and Iran showed that about nine in ten attack drones were shot down, yet each interceptor cost far more than the drone it destroyed. In the same month the Defence Acquisition Council cleared drone and counter drone systems for the Indian forces.
Background
- A drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle, flies without a pilot on board. A one way attack drone flies to its target and destroys itself.
- The kill chain is the sequence find, fix, track, target, engage and assess.
- Its slow point was always the human work of joining imagery, signals and other intelligence. Artificial intelligence now does that joining.
- During Operation Sindoor, Pakistan launched 300 to 400 drones at 36 Indian locations in one night.
What has changed in warfare
- Sensor fusion: data from satellites, drones and radar is merged into one picture, and targets are passed to weapons within minutes.
- Mass: cheap drones are used in hundreds, to exhaust a defence.
- Autonomy: a system that narrows thousands of possibilities to a short ranked list has shaped the decision, even when a human approves it.
The cost problem
- A drone costs tens of thousands of dollars; an interceptor missile about four million.
- A defender who shoots down nearly every drone can still lose the exchange on cost.
- The answer is cheap ways to stop drones: jamming, interceptor drones and directed energy weapons such as lasers.
India's response
- Akashteer is India's indigenous automated air defence control and reporting system.
- The Defence Acquisition Council gave Acceptance of Necessity in July 2026 to the Akash Tarang electronic warfare system against drones, a Very Short Range Air Defence System and jet powered kamikaze drones.
- It also cleared a High Altitude Pseudo Satellite, a solar powered aircraft that loiters in the stratosphere and does a satellite's work at lower cost.
The ethical question
- If a machine selects targets, who is accountable for a wrong strike?
- International humanitarian law requires distinction between combatants and civilians, which an algorithm may not make reliably.
- There is no treaty on lethal autonomous weapons; talks continue at the United Nations.
The way forward
- Build cheap drones in large numbers and cheap ways to stop them, and not only costly platforms.
- Invest in software and data integration across the three services.
- Keep meaningful human control over the decision to use force.
- Take part in framing international rules on autonomous weapons.
Prelims facts
- Akashteer is an air defence control and reporting system; Akash Tarang is an electronic warfare system against drones.
- The Defence Acquisition Council is chaired by the Defence Minister.
- Acceptance of Necessity is an in principle approval of the need, given before tenders, and is not a contract.
- A High Altitude Pseudo Satellite flies in the stratosphere.
The kill chain runs find, fix, track, target, engage and assess. Its weak point was always the human capacity to fuse imagery, signals and other intelligence fast enough, which is the gap artificial intelligence now fills. A one way attack drone flies to its target and destroys itself. Akashteer is India's indigenous automated air defence control and reporting system. In March 2026 the Pentagon made Palantir's Maven system a core command and control program of record, fusing data from satellites, drones, radar and sensors; a system that narrows thousands of possibilities to a ranked shortlist has shaped the decision even when a human approves it.
Layered targeting
Sensors
Satellites, drones and radar gather data: find, fix and track
Data fusion
The feeds are merged into one picture
Specialised models
Computer vision, graph analytics, anomaly detection and language models narrow the choices: target
Where it breaks: Stale imagery, faulty geolocation or bad translation can produce a wrong but confident answer.
Humans
Analysts, lawyers and commanders decide: engage and assess
What changed
7 Jul 2026LeadDrones, autonomy and the cost of defence
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2026: drone swarms and how they are countered
Airborne Early Warning and Control Mk II
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The Mk II is DRDO's airborne early warning aircraft built on a converted A321 airliner, with the radar and mission systems developed in India.
What changed
22 Jul 2026BriefDRDO's Centre for Air Borne Systems signed contracts to convert six A321 airliners into bare airframes and to build the radar and mission systems with an Indian private firm as development and production partner. PIB, 22 Jul 2026: DRDO inks two major contracts with Industry partners as part of AEW&C MK-II programme (opens in a new tab)
26 Jun 2026BriefDRDO handed the Final Operational Clearance of Netra, India's first indigenous airborne early warning and control system on the Embraer EMB-145, to the Indian Air Force (IAF) on 25 June. It came nine years after Initial Operational Clearance in 2017; Netra was developed by the Centre for Air Borne Systems and used at Balakot and in Operation Sindoor. Its indigenous active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar steers beams electronically and tracks many targets at once. The Hindu, 26 Jun 2026: Explained | Netra AEW&C: India's indigenous 'eye in the sky' that strengthens air power (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 25 Jun 2026: IAF gets Final Operational Clearance of indigenous Airborne Early Warning & Control system 'Netra' (opens in a new tab)
Fibre optic drones
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A fibre optic drone unspools a hair thin cable that carries all its control and video, so it emits no radio signal.
- Unlike ordinary drones, it resists jamming and spoofing; its only signature is its radar cross section, and its weaknesses are wind, rain and snapped cables.
- First person view (FPV) drones are flown through a live camera feed to the operator's goggles.
Types of drone
| Type | How it works |
|---|---|
| FPV strike | Flown through a live camera feed to the operator's goggles into the target, and lost with it |
| Bomber | Drops munitions and returns |
| Loitering munition | Waits over an area before striking |
| Fibre optic | Takes commands and sends video through a cable spooled out in flight, emitting no radio signal |
What changed
16 Jun 2026BriefThe wars in Ukraine, Lebanon and the US, Israel and Iran theatre have made mass produced commercial drones central to warfare, and Hezbollah adopted fibre optic drones. The Hindu, 16 Jun 2026: Drone revolution and modern warfare | Explained (opens in a new tab)
See also: AI, drones and autonomy in warfare