By A Correspondent
New Delhi: The Indian Army has released a drone and loitering munitions roadmap to help Indian industry and academia work on technologies to arm soldiers with robust asymmetric warfare capabilities, drawing lessons from recent global military conflicts.
Under the plan, the Indian Army would acquire thousands of drones and loitering munitions for varied roles such as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, precision strikes, munition dropping, air defence, jamming, mine warfare, data relay, and logistics.
Called the Indian Army’s Technology Roadmap for Unmanned Aerial Systems and Loitering Munitions, Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Capability Development and Sustenance) Lieutenant General Rahul R. Singh released it here on April 7, 2026.
The Indian Army released the document to clarify long-term and future capability requirements for research and development by relevant stakeholders.
The Indian Army expects the document to drive innovation under ‘Aatmanibhar Bharat’ (Self-Reliant India) initiatives, Ministry of Defence officials said.
The Indian Army has projected it needed 30 types of unmanned aerial systems and loitering munitions over five years, the officials said. The innovation efforts would have to produce 80 variants of drones and loitering munitions for the army based on the terrain and operational needs, they said.
The roadmap included details such as system specifications, expected life cycles, approximate quantities, and variant configurations to help guide future development and procurement.
The Indian Army said the roadmap was intended to strengthen collaboration with domestic industry players such as the Drone Federation India and the Army Design Bureau, while accelerating the development of next-generation unmanned systems for future warfare.
The drone technology roadmap came just weeks after India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh called for the nation to emerge as the global hub for drone manufacturing by 2030 to meet both domestic military needs and to preserve strategic autonomy.
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