Indian Army Implementing New-Age Lessons From Russia-Ukraine War; Tests SWARM Drones, Loitering Munitions In GPS-Denied Environments

The Indian Army has begun implementing lessons of new-age warfare, learnt from Russia-Ukraine war, into tactical conditions.

A strike corps from the Southern Command recently conducted a validation exercise in the desert, which was reviewed by Army Chief General Manoj Pande.

During the exercise, for the first time, the army conducted operational usage of SWARM drones, 50-kilogram payload class logistics drones, and loitering munitions in a realistic global positioning system (GPS)-denied environment, said Sameer Joshi, the founder of NewSpace Research, a Bengaluru-based company.

It is worth noting that, NewSpace Research supplied the Indian armed forces SWARM drones at the sidelines of Aero India in February 2023, making the forces one of the first in the world to operationally induct SWARM drones.

In a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the Army stated, "The exercise validated multi-domain operations with deep manoeuvres integrating modern technology, new generation equipment and weapon systems. The army chief complimented the commanders for in-depth planning & successful execution displaying synergy, jointness and multi-level integration."

The usage of logistics drones capable of lifting a 50-kilogram payload was also demonstrated.

Moreover, Nagastra-1 loitering munitions were also used to destroy enemy targets with pin-point accuracy. The munition was launched in a pre-determined trajectory, following which it went to a kamikaze mode, and hit the target with pin-point accuracy.

Nagastra-1 has a maximum strike range of 15 km and can carry a payload of 1 kg. It can loiter over a target for a maximum of 60 minutes and has an accuracy of less than 2 metres.

The most crucial aspect of this exercise was the deployment of these drones in a realistic situation, where even the global navigation satellite system, which these drones use for guidance and navigation, was also jammed.

Notably, the recent Nagorno-Karabakh war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the Russia-Ukraine war, has shown extensive use of loitering munitions to destroy tactically important targets, significantly degrading opponents' fighting capabilities.