The Indian Army has signed a deal with Solar Industries Nagpur to supply 'Nagastra' Loitering munition to the Indian Army.

An official from the Solar Industries said that the Made in India content in this liotering munition is more than 75 per cent and it beats various competitive offerings from Israel and Poland.

The Solar Industries is the parent company of Economics Explosives Limited (EEL) — the primary designer of the Nagastra-1 loitering munition.

According to the official, Nagastra-1 has maximum range of 30 km in autonomous mode of operation and 15 kilometres in man-in-the-loop mode. It can loiter over a target for a maximum of 60 minutes and has an accuracy of less than 2 metres.

The fixed-wing electric powered UAV uses GPS for precision strikes and is capable of destroying various soft-skinned targets using its pre-fragmented high explosive warhead. The munition also carries a day-and-night camera for surveillance as well.

The Nagastra-1 in its 'Kamikaze' mode can seach and destroy any target by crashing into it. If the target is not found or the mission is aborted, the munition can be called back and recovered using a parachute.

EEL is also working on an another loitering munition, Nagastra-2, which has a range of more than 25 km and an endurance of 90 minutes.

The loitering muntions has turned out to be a very important part of modern warfare as demonstrated in the Armenia-Azerbaijan and Russia-Ukraine war, where the drones shown their ability to destroy thin-skinned vehicles and even Surface to Air missile launchers and radars.

Earlier, the Indian Army became one of the first major army of the world to induct SWARM drones. These SWARM drones were delivered to the Army by a Bengaluru-based start-up, NewSpace Research, which delivered the drones in february, on the sidelines of Aero India 2023.

These SWARM drones were ordered under an emergency procurement route and were part of a wider push by the forces to operationalise cutting-edge unmanned technology in the forces. 

The SWARM drones are capable of delivering explosives of different categories up to a range of 50 km on moving targets like armoured vehicles and enemy artillery positions, the report says.