By: Sameer Showkin Lone
Srinagar: To counter increasing drone movements across the LoC and international border, the government is mulling to install counter drone jammers.
According to official sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Government is proposing to set up Counter Drone Jammers to jam the remote signal of energy drones whose activity of weapon dropping and narcotics has increased over the years.
At a passing out parade of DySPs and Sub Inspectors in Jammu, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha listed increasing threats from drones as one of the major challenges for security agencies in maintaining peace in J&K.
The MHA sources further said that BSF, National Security Guards (NSG) and Defence, Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with the assistance of certain foreign companies and Start ups in the country are in the process of developing anti-drone technology which will be installed along the International border and Line of Control (LOC) where drone activity is frequently recorded.
The MHA would fund the multi-crore project for developing the anti-drone technology for installation at earliest to curb the militancy and narco syndicate being allegedly run across the border.
Notably, IAF had also initiated the process of acquiring 10 anti-drone systems for deploying them at different airbases and has asked vendors to provide a multi-sensor , multi-kill solution to enforce effectively.
The decision was taken after a drone attack on an Airforce base by militant groups on June 27 last year.
Since 2020, BSF has recorded more than 100 drone sightings on the J&K borders.
It may be recalled that the drone attack at Jammu Airforce Base was taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Though this was seen as the first attack using drones to target a major military installation in India, drones have been used to drop caches of weapons in Punjab, the person cited above said pointing a finger at Pakistan.
All three branches of the Indian military have long been aware of the threat of the use of technology to target their personnel and assets, reports said.
The Indian military is still in the process of acquiring anti-drone technology, while technology from abroad is being looked at, there is also the possibility of homegrown technology such as the one developed by the Defence Research and Development Organization that is also being considered.
