In an age where the sky is no longer empty but crowded with intent — commercial, civilian, and increasingly hostile — airspace security has become one of the defining challenges of modern defence. Drones have rapidly evolved into instruments of surveillance, disruption, and warfare, collapsing the distance between peace and conflict. At the centre of India’s response to this shift is Indrajaal — a homegrown counter-drone ecosystem built not just to intercept threats, but to think, adapt, and decide at machine speed. Founder and CEO Kiran Raju speaks to CE about the moments that shaped this vision, the philosophy behind autonomous defence, and why the future of security will be intelligent, indigenous, and always on.
Excerpts
What was the moment when you realised India needed a homegrown, full-spectrum counter-drone solution like Indrajaal?
The inflection point was around 2019–2021, when drone incidents stopped being experimental and became operational. The drone attack on Saudi Aramco’s oil facilities in 2019 by Yemen’s Houthi rebels was a wake-up call. Later, in India, Punjab began reporting cross-border drone drops linked to arms and narcotics. The Jammu airbase attack in 2021 demonstrated that low-cost drones could penetrate high-security military zones. Globally, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and later the Russia-Ukraine conflict proved that inexpensive drones could reshape battlefield economics and overwhelm traditional air defence. What became clear was that drones were no longer standalone devices. They had become a system of delivery, reconnaissance, and psychological warfare. India’s responses at the time were fragmented, limited to isolated radars, point jammers and manual monitoring. Doctrine and procurement were still oriented toward aircraft and missiles, not persistent low-altitude threats. That gap signalled the need for an indigenous system capable of sensing, deciding, and acting autonomously across both military and civilian environments. We realised drones were going to be mainstream in 2021. We understood that for drones to reach their full potential, security is going to play a pivotal role. Each country will want their own security infrastructure.
SkyOS™️ is positioned as the ‘brain’ of Indrajaal. What makes its decision-making genuinely autonomous?
Rule-based defence systems operate on predefined triggers. Autonomous defence systems interpret evolving contexts. SkyOS™️ continuously fuses multi-domain inputs such as RF signatures, radar tracks, visual confirmation, protocol anomalies, and behavioural patterns to generate a live threat picture. Instead of reacting to a fixed condition, it predicts intent based on trajectory, dwell time, and known hostile patterns observed globally. Its learning models are trained on extensive datasets from publicly documented drone deployments across conflict zones and commercial platforms. That allows it to evaluate probability, not certainty, and choose proportionate responses dynamically. Human operators remain in supervisory control, but the system processes and acts at speeds beyond human cognitive limits. The distinction is not automation of commands, but autonomy of judgement.
From Indrajaal Infra to ranger, combat, trooper, maritime to other innovations by Indrajaal, can you take us through these product lineups?
Indrajaal Urban is a city-safe counter-drone system that prioritises capture and control over disruption. It can safely capture rogue drones without disrupting nearby Wi-Fi, radio, or cellular networks, which is a key differentiator for dense, spectrum-congested areas like airports, government zones, and central business districts. It is built around a cyber takeover approach, where the system mimics control signals to hijack and redirect a rogue drone for a safe landing rather than relying on broad jamming.
Indrajaal Infra is the fixed-site, autonomous counter-drone shield built to protect high-value and sensitive infrastructure such as naval ports, oil refineries, nuclear power plants, and strategic facilities from persistent low-altitude aerial threats. It operates as a layered dome combining radar, RF, electro-optical sensors and AI-driven command through SkyOS™️ to deliver continuous detection, identification and neutralisation with minimal human intervention. The system is engineered for long-duration deployment in complex electromagnetic and civilian-adjacent environments, prioritising early attribution and non-kinetic mitigation while retaining hard-kill capability when required. In essence,
Indrajaal Infra turns critical infrastructure from vulnerable targets into autonomously protected airspace nodes, aligned with the growing global recognition that drone defence is now a core element of national security infrastructure.
Indrajaal Military is configured for combat and high-threat operational theatres where drones are treated as lethal battlefield assets. It combines radar-based wide-area surveillance, AI-driven command via SkyOS™️, and hard-kill interception using the Zombee autonomous interceptor drone, deployed through rapid-launch capsules designed for rugged and contested environments. Unlike urban systems, it is built to integrate directly with legacy weapons, C5ISRT platforms, and battlefield management systems, enabling layered, autonomous protection across frontline camps, coastal posts, and naval platforms.
Indrajaal Ranger is a mobile, vehicle-mounted counter-drone system designed for dynamic and infrastructure-sparse environments such as borders, highways, convoy routes and smuggling corridors where aerial threats are transient and unpredictable. Built on the same SkyOS™️ autonomy, Ranger combines real-time detection with cyber takeover, GNSS manipulation, RF jamming and controlled kinetic options to neutralise rogue drones on the move. Its purpose is not just interception but continuous patrol-based airspace denial, giving security forces an adaptive shield that travels with the asset rather than waiting at fixed perimeters.
Across all of these, SkyOS™️ remains constant. Only sensors, effectors, and operating procedures change. Apart from the ones mentioned, we’re in the process of developing several other products as well.
What specific measures and cybersecurity protocols are implemented to effectively mitigate the risks of adversarial hacking, spoofing, or other forms of cyber warfare?
The architecture is deliberately air-gapped at the core to prevent remote hijacking. Core operations are offline by design. There is no remote command and control channel that an adversary can hijack. When connectivity is required, communications use encrypted, authenticated channels compliant with Indian security protocols. Multi-layer spoof detection and firmware hardening ensure resilience against manipulation. Rather than relying solely on defensive cyberwalls, the system minimises exposure, reflecting lessons from global electronic warfare environments.In short, we reduce the attack surface rather than trying to defend an unnecessarily exposed one.
‘AI hacks the drone’s brain’ is a powerful phrase. Where do you draw ethical boundaries when cyber takeover is involved?
The phrase can sound dramatic, but the reality is far more contained. Cyber takeover is designed for a very specific safety use case — bringing down unauthorised drones within a protected area, with minimal risk to people and infrastructure. It is a defensive capability, not an offensive one. Once control is achieved, the system’s role is limited to neutralisation — typically a controlled landing or disabling the drone safely. The technology operates within a defined, authorised range and cannot be used to redirect drones over long distances or repurpose them for harm. So it’s about securing airspace, not projecting power. The question of unethical use doesn’t arise because the system is constrained by design, deployed only to safeguard designated zones, and used strictly under authorised conditions. Plus, the sale and deployment of such technologies are heavily regulated, ensuring they are accessible only to approved government and security stakeholders.
Indrajaal is homegrown. What advantages does building this in India give you over global competitors?
We understand India’s threat environment because we live in it. From borders and coastlines to dense urban airspace, the challenges here are unique. Building in India allows us to iterate faster, integrate with local forces more closely, and remain independent of foreign supply chain restrictions. It also ensures strategic sovereignty. That matters deeply in defence. India is a country with vast borders in land, sea, mountains and desert, so any systems that perform here will be suitable for many countries.
How supportive has India’s defence ecosystem been?
Support has shifted from policy intent to operational adoption in recent years, evidenced by indigenous trials and MoD deployments. The responsibility, however, remains constant. Autonomous defence systems operate in environments where errors carry national consequences. That awareness drives discipline and humility in every stage of development. The procurement process is still not optimised for the AI generation, but it will soon be forced to adapt.
How do you envision the future of Indrajaal?
Counter-drone protection will evolve into a national security infrastructure, similar to radar networks or cyber defence layers. Indrajaal’s trajectory is toward becoming a persistent protective grid safeguarding military, civilian, and strategic assets as drone warfare becomes more autonomous and accessible worldwide. Eventually, entire cities and states will be covered by the electronic dome to ensure safe and secure drone activities. There will be drone highways, traffic, and rest stops in the near future.