NEW DELHI: The Defence Ministry on Friday signed contracts worth around Rs. 1,577 crore with Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) and NIBE Pvt Ltd for long-range loitering munition systems for the Army, strengthening the artillery’s emerging drone-based precision-strike capability.
The contracts were signed and exchanged in the presence of Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh in New Delhi. The ministry in its statement said the acquisition would boost the operational effectiveness of artillery regiments and strengthen the Army’s overall combat capability.
The procurement has been made under the Buy (Indian) category through the Fast Track Procedure, pointing to the Army’s push to induct unmanned strike systems for operational requirements.
The Army had earlier floated a tender for 840 loitering munitions with a range of around 100 km. Three vendors, TASL, NIBE and A-Vision, had cleared the technical evaluation, with TASL emerging as the lowest bidder. Under the standard order-splitting provision, TASL was to meet 64% of the requirement and NIBE 36%.
The systems are meant to bolster the Army’s newly created Shaktibaan Regiments and Divyastra batteries, which are part of the Regiment of Artillery’s ongoing restructuring to integrate drones and loitering munitions with conventional firepower.
Loitering munitions occupy a space between armed drones and precision-guided missiles. They can be launched towards a target area, remain airborne while searching for or waiting for a target and then dive onto the target. Their ability to combine surveillance, target acquisition and strike in a single system allows commanders to engage targets at considerable distances while shortening the sensor-to-shooter cycle.
The induction is part of the Army’s broader push to integrate unmanned systems into artillery formations following the increasing battlefield use of drones and loitering munitions in recent conflicts.
Shaktibaan units are being developed as dedicated drone formations built around surveillance and strike capabilities, while Divyastra batteries are being integrated into artillery formations alongside conventional weapons.
The Army had announced the creation of these formations as part of its broader transformation programme, with implementation orders for Shaktibaan regiments issued last year.
The move is aimed at giving artillery commanders greater reach and faster precision-strike options against targets such as logistics nodes, air-defence assets and vehicle concentrations beyond the range of conventional gun systems.
The acquisition also reflects the growing importance of loitering munitions in contested environments, where their ability to locate and engage targets while operating alongside other unmanned systems can compress the time between detection and engagement.
For the Army, the contracts represent another step towards expanding indigenous production of unmanned combat systems. TASL is among the country’s major private-sector defence manufacturers, while NIBE has also emerged as a supplier of unmanned and loitering-munition systems.
The ministry said the contracts would contribute to the government’s push for self-reliance in defence production and strengthen the domestic defence industrial base.
The latest deals come as the Army rapidly expands the use of drones across combat formations, with unmanned systems increasingly being incorporated into surveillance, reconnaissance, target acquisition and precision-strike roles.
