The initial phase of the industry-Army collaboration will begin with an industry development program, called ‘Him Drone-a-thon’ — which will seek proposals from drone startups and companies in India to be deployed by the Army

NEW DELHI : The Drone Federation of India (DFI), an industry body for the country’s unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) industry, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Army’s Army Design Bureau (ADB) for “accelerating drone technology development and indigenization in the drone ecosystem".

The initial phase of the industry-Army collaboration will begin with an industry development program, called ‘Him Drone-a-thon’ — which will seek proposals from drone startups and companies in India to be deployed by the Army. The first phase of the program will seek to develop drones for use in Army operations in the Himalayas.

“The ADB will provide mentoring and enable field visits to selected participants in order to give Indian industry an exposure of the real-life operational scenarios," a statement issued on the matter further added.

The scope of operations under the new collaboration will include establishing a roadmap for drone deployments in India’s defense forces, research and development, manufacturing and enabling the adoption of drones and counter drones. While drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used for reconnaissance and offensive operations, a counter UAV typically works to protect airspace from external intrusions.

The move comes as a report by Moneycontrol last month said that the centre is working on a services-linked incentive scheme to boost development of indigenous drones in the country. According to the report, the scheme would allow drone manufacturers and service providers in India to receive cash incentives from the central government by offering drone services to state governments.

It is unclear if work has progressed on such an incentive scheme, and if the MoU between DFI and ADB is linked to this as well.

To be sure, this is not the first time that the Indian Army has tapped private drone manufacturers in India. In January last year, the Army sanctioned a $20 million contract to Mumbai-based private drone manufacturer IdeaForge to source an undisclosed number of its vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAV, called ‘Switch’. The company claimed in November last year that it had completed delivery of the Switch UAVs ahead of schedule.

In January this year, IdeaForge chief executive, Ankit Kumar, said that the company received an additional contract similar to its initial one, to deliver a second batch of its Switch UAVs to the Army.

In September last year, the government announced a ₹ 120 crore production-linked incentive scheme for manufacturing drones and drone components locally. During the introduction of the PLI scheme, the government noted that while India’s drone manufacturing sector expected up to ₹ 5,000 crore investments in the next three years, the drone services sector could generate revenues of ₹ 30,000 crore through this time period.

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