BSF looks to test DRDO anti drone system in J&K, Punjab
NEW DELHI: The Border Security Force (BSF) has asked the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to test the prototype of its anti drone system on the field in Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab states, people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.
The anti drone system was tested successfully under controlled conditions at a DRDO facility before officials of BSF and security agencies in Kolar in Karnataka earlier this month.
Pakistan-based terror groups are increasing used unmanned drones to drop weapons ammunition across the western borders to their terror network within India, and also target Indian installations with drone-borne explosives, particularly in Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab.
While Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists targeted the Jammu airbase on June 27 with two drones, an IED-carrying drone was shot down by Jammu & Kashmir police near Gurachak village, eight kilometers within Indian territory, in Akhnoor-Sunderbani sector on Friday.
According to security officials who attended the Kolar test, the DRDO anti drone system performed well in controlled conditions.
It has a radar range of four kilometers, jamming range of more than two kilometres and a kill range of more than one kilometre.
The system was previously tested at the NSG facility in Manesar on January 8. The system was also tried out in an operation on Amritsar border the winter of 2020.
While the army and the security forces are still to deploy the DRDO anti drone system, Bharat Electronics Limited and three private Indian companies have signed transfer of technology agreements with the government agency to mass produce it .
Although a tested anti drone system travels with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s security cavalcade, the DRDO system has been deployed during Republic and Independence Day since 2020. It was also deployed during US President Donald Trump’s official visit to India on February 24-25, 2020 including to the Motera Stadium.
Indian agencies have warned that Pakistan-based terror groups will soon be using artificial intelligence and robotics to target India.
Although the Punjab sector has been facing the drone menace since August 2019, the attack on the Jammu airforce base raised a lot of serious concerns as the unmanned platform not only travelled 30 kilometres to and fro from the border but also dropped RDX explosive on the installations at the air base. It was only due to high winds that the air traffic control building and a helicopter escaped, but it remains that the attackers had accurately targeted the exact latitude and longitude using GPS.