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Military 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

Prelims 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

Prelims and Mains

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

Prelims and Mains

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)

The Navy's new hulls: Project 17A and the Mahe class

Prelims

Project 17A is the Navy's class of seven stealth frigates, designed by its Warship Design Bureau and built at Mazagon Dock and Garden Reach with more than 75 per cent indigenous content.

The frigates so far are Nilgiri, Udaygiri, Himgiri, Taragiri, Dunagiri and Mahendragiri.
The Mahe class Anti Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft hunt submarines in coastal waters too shallow for larger ships.

What changed

22 Jul 2026BriefINS Mahendragiri, the sixth Project 17A frigate, joined the Eastern Fleet. INS Malvan, the second Mahe class craft, was commissioned, and Machilipatnam was launched. PIB, 11 Jul 2026: Govt is committed to invest in next-gen tech while strengthening conventional capabilities: RM (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 6 Jul 2026: Stealth frigate Mahendragiri set to join Indian Navy (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 22 Jul 2026: INDIAN NAVY COMMISSIONS INS MALVAN, THE SECOND OF THE MAHE-CLASS ANTI-SUBMARINE WARFARE SHALLOW WATER CRAFT (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 29 Jul 2026: LAUNCH OF MACHILIPATNAM, THE SEVENTH OF THE MAHE-CLASS ANTI-SUBMARINE WARFARE SHALLOW WATER CRAFT (opens in a new tab)
21 Jun 2026BriefINS Dunagiri, the fifth Project 17A frigate, was one of three Garden Reach ships commissioned in Kolkata. INS Sanshodhak, the fourth Survey Vessel (Large), is configurable as a hospital ship. INS Agray, an Arnala class anti submarine craft, is powered by waterjets for littoral waters. PIB, 21 Jun 2026: Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi commissions Indian Navy's frontline platforms - INS Dunagiri, INS Sanshodhak & INS Agray - in Kolkata (opens in a new tab) · The Indian Express, 21 Jun 2026: What are the three ships with three different strategic roles that Navy inducted (opens in a new tab) · PIB, 19 Jun 2026: Indian Navy set to commission three indigenous naval platforms in Kolkata (opens in a new tab)

Airborne Early Warning and Control Mk II

Prelims and Mains

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

Prelims and Mains

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

The fibre optic drone is the one type that radio jamming cannot reach.Source: The Hindu, 16 June 2026; The Indian Express, 20 June 2026

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)