NEW DELHI: Looking to ramp up long-range stand-off strike capability, the Indian Air Force has tapped domestic firms to develop indigenous, air-dropped AI-enabled swarm munitions with a reach of around 500 km, allowing launch aircraft to stay within Indian airspace while targeting deep inside Pakistan and along sectors of the China front, officials in the IAF told The New Indian Express.
Under the Directorate of Operations (Remote), which is spearheading the project, the IAF wants its workhorse transports, the C-295, C-130J and C-17, to double as strike platforms, releasing canisters that burst open mid-air to unleash coordinated drone swarms on distant targets.
“Each canister will deploy eight or more one-way attack drones, with individual drones cruising at 350 to 400 km/h and carrying a minimum payload of 30 kg, including sensors,” said the official.
“The idea is that these drones have to be self-sufficient. Onboard AI must manage everything from navigation and target search to identification and strike decisions, while remaining effective in environments where satellite navigation may be denied or degraded. The system is expected to deliver a circular error probable (CEP) of under five metres,” the official added.
The IAF is looking at an initial induction of 1,000 to 2,000 systems. The programme is being pursued under the Make-II category of the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020, which involves industry-funded development. On successful validation of prototypes, procurement will be taken up under the Buy (Indian- IDDM) route, with a minimum indigenous content requirement of 50 percent.
This follows Project Vayu Baan, first reported by The New Indian Express, under which the IAF had invited bids from domestic vendors for the design and development of air-launched drone systems with a shorter strike range of around 50 km from helicopters.
With the current push towards longer-range air-launched drones, India is set to join a select group of countries working on such capabilities, which remain largely at the demonstrator stage globally.
In the United States, the DARPA-led Gremlins programme has demonstrated the launch and mid-air recovery of networked, reusable drones from transport aircraft like the C-130 for missions in contested airspace, including electronic warfare and reconnaissance.
Meanwhile, China has showcased air-deployed drone swarms from platforms like the Xi’an H-6 bomber, along with other swarm concepts, though there is no clear evidence of large-scale operational deployment so far.
Elsewhere, several countries are experimenting with swarm technologies in niche roles, from coordinated drone operations to GPS-denied navigation, but fully autonomous, long-range, air-launched strike swarms remain an emerging capability rather than a mature, widely fielded one.