NEW DELHI: To take the risk and drudgery out of hauling supplies to soldiers holding some of the world's highest and harshest positions, the Army has set in motion the process to acquire a fleet of 2,715 logistic drones for the last-mile delivery of arms, ammo and rations to frontline troops.
The push comes even as the Army sustains a massive forward deployment along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China. Though the two sides completed disengagement at the last friction points in eastern Ladakh in October 2024 and resumed patrolling, tens of thousands of troops and their equipment remain concentrated in the high-altitude sector, keeping the resupply burden heavy. The ever-present prospect of a collusive two-front challenge with Pakistan adds to the urgency.
The force has floated a Request for Information (RFI), the first, no-commitment step of any defence purchase, in which the military gauges what industry can offer and firms up its specifications before a formal tender follows.
The drones will come in three altitude-specific variants: those able to operate up to 6,000 feet, between 6,000 and 12,000 feet, and between 12,000 and 20,000 feet, according to the document. The top-end version must lift off from heights of up to 19,000 feet, with all variants built to work in temperatures ranging from a searing 50 degrees Celsius down to minus 30.
Moreover, each drone must carry its payload over a one-way range of 10 to 20 km, take off and land on unprepared ground and fly in fully autonomous, manual and return-home modes, operated by a crew of just two or three. Additionally, every system will bundle an aerial vehicle fitted with GPS, inertial navigation and obstacle-detection sensors, a ground control station, a remote video terminal, a day camera and a night thermal sensor.
The hunt also follows Operation Sindoor in which both sides used drones and loitering munitions against each other, for surveillance and precision strikes alike, for the first time. In the months since, the armed forces have sped up the induction of indigenous drones and counter-drone systems (CUAS) across the surveillance, strike and logistics spectrum, drawing also on the drone-saturated grind of the war in Ukraine. This logistic-drone plan is part of that surge.
Learning lessons and mindful of how easily drones can be jammed, spoofed and shot down, the Army wants the machines hardened against electronic warfare (EW), with anti-jamming and anti-spoofing safeguards and an Identification Friend or Foe system to guard against friendly fire. They must also lock on to India's home-grown NavIC and IRNSS satellite systems, apart from GPS and GLONASS. The RFI further also seeks a service life of at least seven years, airframes tough enough to survive a minimum of 1,000 landings, and indigenous flight-control software.
In line with the self-reliance drive, the order will be pursued under the Buy (Indian-IDDM), Buy (Indian) or Buy & Make (Indian) routes of the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020, which mandate at least 50 percent indigenous content. It adds to a fast-swelling domestic pipeline, with the armed forces separately moving on a record unmanned-systems order worth over USD 2 billion spanning established defence majors and startups alike.
The Army already fields a small number of logistic drones for high-altitude resupply along the LAC and the Line of Control (LOC) with Pakistan but the fresh RFI signals a far larger, standardised induction across all three altitude bands.
The contest will follow the single-stage, two-bid system. Shortlisted equipment will be put through field trials in India on a "no cost, no commitment" (NCNC) basis before the lowest bidder is chosen, with an integrity pact made mandatory. Only original equipment manufacturers, their authorised vendors and government-sponsored export agencies may respond and they have eight weeks to do so.