On January 29, 2022, hundreds of drones took to the sky over the Rashtrapati Bhawan, heralding the culmination of the annual “Beating the Retreat” ceremony. The Drone Show was conducted by a team belonging to an IIT-Delhi incubated start-up, “BotLab Dynamics”. The unique aspect of the display, besides a capability demonstration, was that it was conducted in one of the most secure parts of the airspace of the country, where no overflights are permitted. The event was also a significant milestone in the efforts to impose confidence and faith in the fledgeling Indian Drone Industry. The event was allowed to continue despite the unfortunate Drone incident during the Republic Day celebrations at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, wherein a Drone crashed into spectators causing grievous injuries. The drone enthusiast was allowed to operate an agricultural drone over spectators and performing artists when an error caused it to crash. This accident, however, may also be seen as an opportunity by the regulator, which is the Drone Directorate under the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which is doing stellar work in supporting the evolving drone ecosystem, to undertake a root cause analysis and undertake remedial action.
The foundation stone for evolving the Drone ecosystem was laid in November 2020, with the Finance Ministry approving the establishment of a separate Drone Directorate under the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Significantly, the establishment was approved amidst the Covid-19 austerity measures in place. The Drone rules, 2021, were thereafter notified on August 25, 2021. These are aimed at regulating all the drones operating in the country except those belonging to an unmanned aircraft system belonging to, or used by, the naval, military or air forces of the Union of India.
The significance of the opportunity accorded was recognised by the industry. The market potential was pegged at INR 50,000 crores with a job creation potential of over 5,00,000 professional jobs in five years. In addition, the government has recognised Drone technology as one of the technologies for national importance established the “Unmanned Aircraft Systems Promotion Council” to promote industry and academia linkages to develop critical military-grade technologies and support India in becoming a global drone hub.
The formulation of the liberalised drone policy aimed to reduce the compliance burden by establishing the online “DigitalSky” platform and freeing up the airspace through the rollout of interactive maps with clearly demarcated green, yellow and red flying zones. It also specified the drone registration & certification procedure. The emphasis was also on promoting R&D and indigenous manufacturing. A significant step in this direction was the Ministry of Civil Aviation issuing the National Unmanned Aircraft System (UTM) policy framework on October 24, 2021.
The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model was proposed for managing airspace below 1000 feet for rolling out traffic management services with the Central Government, DGCA, BCAS, AAI and the IAF as the key stakeholders. The private players are intended to be the service providers that provide services for safe operations of all kinds of unmanned aerial traffic with the DigitalSky as the interface.
The push for evolving the drone landscape appears to be emerging from the Indian Prime Minister himself. On November 19, 2021, Sh. Narendra Modi handed over the “SWITCH 1.0 UAV” drone developed by IdeaForge Technologies & the “MR-20” drone developed by mPhibr Pvt. Ltd. to the Vice Chief of the Army Staff during the Rashtra Raksha Samarpan Parv. During this period, the US also proposed a $3 Billion Deal for 20 Sky Guardian & 10 Sea Guardian drones and an offer to set up a Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in India.
The efforts seem to be paying off, and many innovative ideas have found their way into the minds of the policy makers. One such measure was the issuance of the Draft National Air Sports Policy, 2022, on January 01, 2022, which seeks to link up sports and aviation to exploit opportunities in the civil sector. Drones, Aeromodelling and Amateur-built experimental aircraft, have all found a mention in the policy. In addition, the “DigitalSky” platform also finds a mention for airspace management.
The airspace management aspects are particularly significant from a security standpoint. These aspects have to be carefully considered as the anti-national elements have started to exploit the easy availability of drones, and the evolving Drone threat is significant.
The Border Security Force (BSF) has started reporting a significant rise in the illegal trans-border movement of drones since mid-2021. The threat seems to be rising exponentially, as signified by an increase in the number of drone-related incidents. These drones seem to be being used for all kinds of nefarious activities, including narcotics smuggling and gun-running operations and pose a direct threat to India’s national security.
The emergence of the drone as a security threat is evident on the international scene, as evidenced by the use of drones by the Houthis to attack strategic assets in the UAE. Oil refineries have been attacked as also the airports and other vital installations, resulting in a significant number of casualties. The lethality and efficacy of attacks have increased progressively and have prompted an active search for counter-drone options.
These options can be broadly classified into policy-related & anti-drone measures. Thankfully, the most adverse policy measure possible, i.e. imposition of a blanket ban on all kinds of drones, has already been discarded in an Indian context. The focus is now on mitigating the drone threat using other means. Most of these anti-drone measures comprising kinetic and non-kinetic measures squarely fall in the purview of defence forces, particularly the Indian Air Force. While the kinetic measures include using lasers, bullets and nets to neutralise the offending drone, the non-kinetic means include the use of jammers to break or take over the communication links. However, the search for a genuinely cost-effective measure continues as the threat also continues to evolve with the capability of the drones to operate as a swarm, as was displayed by a start-up, “Botlab Dynamics”, during the “Beating the Retreat” ceremony.
The push by the government for the rollout of Drone related services is likely to continue as signified by the Drone (Amendment) Rules 2022 issued via Gazette notification on February 11, 2022. Before issuing this notification, severe restrictions on importing drones in Completely Built-Up (CBU), Semi-Knocked-Down (SKD) or Completely-knocked-Down units were imposed with certain exceptions. At the same time, the import of drone components was made completely ‘free’. This indicates the continuance of a facilitative approach towards indigenisation is indicated. The only worrying aspect is “policing” this rollout in terms of effective anti-drone measures. As the UTM issue attains significance, such measures are essential to counter inadvertent and intentional breaches of rules and regulations. Any such measure while mitigating the threat must also prevent collateral damage. This challenge is yet to be solved; however, the fledgling indigenous drone industry must arise and find an effective solution to the problem to truly celebrate the Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav in style.
