BENGALURU: Bengaluru-headquartered drone manufacturer Scandron has stated that it is expecting orders from the Indian Army in the next 5-6 months. With the intention to offer the Army seamless, quick last-mile connectivity solutions, into areas that would conventionally require mules or human effort to reach over a longer period of time, Scandron, a subsidiary of Magellanic Cloud Ltd, has designed and tested, and will manufacture specific drones to suit the job. Right now, a substantial number of its CargoMax 4000QX (40-kg payload) and CargoMax 6000H (75 kg) drones are expected to be on order.
Stating that the company is the only one with a complete solution, Scandron Founder and CEO Arjun Naik said, “All our drones are certified for high-altitude flying... and the Army’s requirement is for an altitude of 15,000-17,000 ft. Our drones work very well at those heights and conditions. They even function at night, and are more versatile than a helicopter.”
The drones help solve a very critical problem for the Army, i.e., getting food, ammunition and other essential supplies to the troops at the last mile. These are areas with inhospitable weather conditions, low visibility and rough terrain, where even helicopters sometimes cannot land. Hence, drones carry the much-needed resources for soldiers stationed there.
Accordingly, the company has also set up a manufacturing base in Leh, from where it can serve and support the Army’s requirements better. Leh, along with Scandron’s Bengaluru facility, have a manufacturing capacity of 400 drones, which are manufactured-to-order.
“Drones are like trucks, and their cargo type can be changed. There is a cargo box, in which any kind of material can be placed. All our drones are autonomous, though they can be piloted as well. If you feed a mission plan, the drone flies autonomously, completes the mission and returns,” Naik told TNIE. From a single system, five drones can be operated, and they only need to be monitored. Software for the drones is also developed in-house.
In the CargoMax series (a line of logistics drones) alone, Scandron has options in the payload capacities of 5 kg, 15 kg, 10 kg, 40 kg, and 75 kg. At Aero India 2025, the company unveiled the CargoMax 20KHC, boasting of a 200-kg payload capacity and 15-km range, which is designed to serve the Indian armed forces with a reliable aerial logistics platform for last-mile deliveries.
“The military is a good testing ground. Eventually, we see ourselves having more large-scale commercial operations of drones. We have already tied up with a few customers, as we await BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) Rules from the government, which are expected in the next few months. As of now, we have supplied 30 drones to the commercial sector,” he said.
Today, Scandron specialises in surveillance drones, agri-spraying drones, and custom UAVs too, while operating across drone manufacturing and Drone as a Service (DaaS) arenas, and serving oil & gas and power generation sectors as well.
Over the next three years, Scandron will see investments to the tune of Rs 400 crore, and foresees revenues of Rs 700-1,000 crore, while looking at designing larger drones.