What are Ashni Platoons as Indian Army steps up suicide drone procurement after Operation Sindoor?

The Indian Army is in the process of buying 850 kamikaze drones which will be used to equip its special forces as well as naval and air force units. The proposal is at an advanced stage of acquisition and is likely to be cleared soon by a high-level meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council scheduled to be held in the last week of December.

The report added that the nature of the conflict with Pakistan in May 2025 and lessons learnt from it influenced the force to acquire more suicide drones. 

What are kamikaze drones?

As per the proposal to be implemented under fast-track procedures by the force, the Indian Army will get around 850 loitering munitions along with launchers from indigenous sources, news agency ANI said. Loitering munitions is the technical term used to describe kamikaze or suicide drones which usually "loiter" over a battlefield before destroying targets by crashing into them and detonating their built-in explosive payload. They can hover in the air silently for hours before their targets finally show up. 

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During World War II, the Japanese Air Force developed "Special Attack Units" that made pilots to deliberately crash their explosive-laden aircraft into Allied warships. These missions were, needless to say, suicide attacks and were called "kamikaze" missions, which literally translates to "divine wind." Thus, the  UAVs which nosedive at highspeeds to take out a target,  came to be known as kamikaze drone. 

Indian Army’s Ashni Platoon

"The Indian Army uses a large number of loitering munitions acquired from different sources and is now looking to induct around 30,000 of them in the near future to equip all its fighting forces," they said. "The Army infantry battalions will now have one Ashni platoon each, which will be responsible for operating drones to be used against enemy locations and also in counter-insurgency roles," ANI reported.

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The Ashni Platoon, sometimes referred to as the Ashni Combat Unit, is an infantry unit of the Indian Army known for its expertise in drone-centric warfare. The platoon was developed as part of the Indian Army's "Year of Technology Absorption" in 2024, and made its operational debut during a high-altitude drill in the Kameng sector of Arunachal Pradesh. Surveillance, target acquisition, and precision strikes to multi-domain manoeuvres are among the platoon's focus areas. As of October 2025, 385 infantry battalions are now equipped with dedicated drone platoons, each operating a fleet of 10 systems – four for surveillance and six for loitering munitions, or kamikaze drones, a report had said.

The Indian Army in the past too had credited Operation Sindoor for helping the force to shape its understanding of joint, technology-driven warfare.

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The Indian Army heavily utilised drones to target terror headquarters inside Pakistan during Operation Sindoor. India took out seven of the nine terrorist targets on the first day of the operation, which was conducted in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. As the conflict escalated with Islamabad's attempts to retaliate, the drones were also used against the Pakistan Army.