Overview
- Senior air leaders, who spoke Friday in New Delhi, said drones have become strike weapons and proposed a joint tri-service drone warfare center with tactics refreshed every six months.
- They called for turning the integrated grid proven during Operation Sindoor into a standing counter-drone network under Project Sudarshan Chakra that links the Air Force’s IACCS with the Army’s Akashteer and the Navy’s Trigun systems.
- The IAF chief said that network kept Pakistani drones and other weapons from hitting targets during last May’s four-day clash, crediting tight coordination and shared tracking across services.
- The CISC warned that rivals are fielding drones with fiber‑optic control lines, AI navigation and low‑observable designs that defeat jamming, urging more passive electro‑optical, infrared and acoustic sensors with AI threat classification.
- Commanders pressed to speed DRDO’s Ghatak stealth combat drone and move loyal‑wingman teaming toward operations, while pushing for cheaper counter‑UAS options to cope with mass low‑cost attacks.