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The Drone Federation of India (DFI) and the Army Design Bureau (ADB) on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding to accelerate drone technology development and indigenisation in the drone ecosystem in the country at a time when the world is witnessing a swift transition from traditional warfare to a technology-driven one.

“We are looking at developing specific, purpose-built drones for the Indian Army and at developing drones and their components in India,” a DFI official said.

Drones play a crucial role on the frontline, especially high-altitude areas, as troops increasingly face threat from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) dropping payloads or supplying arms and ammunition from across the borders to anti-national elements.

The need of the hour for the Indian defence machinery is to customise such UAVs to adapt to the high-altitude requirement of our forces.

Also Read: HAL developing AI-driven multi-role, long-endurance drone for vigil over LAC: Report

“This collaboration will help accelerate this process. We are also planning a visit of industry insiders at the forward areas to expose them to actual operating scenarios of soldiers,” the official added.

“The DFI and ADB have established a holistic collaboration on roadmap planning, research, testing, manufacturing and adoption of drone, counter drone and associated technologies that are to be utilised by the Indian Army in its operations,” Smit Shah, president of DFI, said.

As a first step of this collaboration, the DFI and ADB are launching the ‘Indian Army’s Him-Drone-a-thon’. Under this program, the military industry will develop high impact drone solutions for high altitude operational areas, a DFI official said.

“This program will invite proposals for development of drone-based solutions for supporting Indian Army’s operations in the harsh Himalayan terrains,” Shah said, adding that the ADB will mentor and enable field visits to selected participants to give Indian industry an exposure of the real-life operational scenarios.

The details about the program will be launched soon, officials said.

“Indian drone start-ups have started delivering specialised products that meet the Indian Army’s frontline requirements. This collaboration between DFI and ADB will establish new drone use cases and develop high impact drone solutions for the Indian Army via an active industry-academia-user engagement,” Shah said.

Acknowledging the partnership, Major General CS Mann (VSM), who is also the additional director general of ADB, said, “This collaboration will help in providing a focused approach towards upgrading Indian drone manufacturing capabilities to meet defence requirements. It will also enable companies to leverage the expertise on the subject within the Indian Army. We look forward to working together.”

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