India's DRDO launches jam‑proof 50‑drone swarm program

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India has issued a Request for Proposal under its Technology Development Fund to develop a jam‑proof swarm of fifty drones. The drones must fly no more than 50 cm apart, maintain positional accuracy within ±5 cm on all three axes, and operate in winds up to 20 m/s at altitudes of up to 5,000 m. Each unit will carry a payload of 0.5–2 kg, stay airborne for at least 30 minutes, recharge in 15 minutes and be deployable within five minutes. A single ground‑station operator will control the entire cluster, with a master drone coordinating a seven‑by‑seven grid of at least 49 slave drones. The system must also work from moving ships and use a five‑kilometre jammer‑proof communication link in S‑band, HF or C‑band, incorporating AI, edge computing and electronic counter‑countermeasure technologies.

The programme follows India’s heightened focus on unmanned warfare after Pakistan’s deployment of 800–1,000 drones during the May‑June Operation Sindoor conflict. The Indian Army Air Defence and private defence firms and startups are being engaged to meet the demanding technical specifications, while the TDF route remains reserved for the most advanced components.