The Indian Air Force chief highlighted the imperative for integrating manned and unmanned aerial platforms in future combat, underscoring the need for accelerated indigenous development of drone technologies to achieve full self-reliance and maintain operational preparedness.

The Indian Air Force chief highlighted the imperative for integrating manned and unmanned aerial platforms in future combat, underscoring the need for accelerated indigenous development of drone technologies to achieve full self-reliance and maintain operational preparedness.

The Indian Air Force chief highlighted the imperative for integrating manned and unmanned aerial platforms in future combat, underscoring the need for accelerated indigenous development of drone technologies to achieve full self-reliance and maintain operational preparedness.

As India continues to strengthen its drone warfare capabilities, Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh, on Thursday, reiterated the need for greater integration of manned and unmanned platforms while calling for faster development of indigenous drone technologies.

Addressing a workshop hosted by the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) in New Delhi, the IAF chief said the future battlespace will see manned aircraft and a wide spectrum of drones sharing the same airspace, making seamless integration critical.

"Integration is very important. We have manned platforms and long-range vectors which will continue to use the same airspace where the drones are going to come in. I am talking about a whole range of drones, from a small micro or mini drone to a UAS which is like a full aircraft, but unmanned," he said, according to news agency PTI.

He said operators must have complete situational awareness to ensure safe and effective employment of drones without fratricide.

"We should be able to have no fratricide, in terms of us shooting down our own drones or taking down something that is meant for us," he said, adding that discussions are underway with the ministry of civil aviation and other ministries to enable the identification of whether a drone is a bona fide platform or a rogue one.

The IAF chief also stressed that India must achieve complete self-reliance in unmanned aerial systems and the technologies that support them, saying every critical component should be developed within the country.

"And while doing this, we have to get down to the absolute... every brick has to be made in India. Actually, every brick should be developed in India, then only we can say we are fully Atmanirbhar," he said, warning that dependence on foreign components could leave India vulnerable to supply disruptions.

He also called for rapid technology development, saying delays could undermine operational preparedness.

"Technology delayed is technology denied. There is no point having something which comes later than when others have got it and gone beyond it," Singh said, adding that technologies must move quickly from laboratories to operational deployment.

The Air Chief Marshal highlighted that drone warfare presents unique challenges, noting that drones carry smaller payloads than manned aircraft and therefore often need to be deployed in large numbers. He also pointed to the relatively high failure rates of drones, underlining the need for continuous technological improvements, miniaturisation of payloads, stealth features, survivability measures and robust testing.

Singh said the development of drones and counter-drone systems requires collaboration among the armed forces, defence industry, researchers, regulators, academia, investors and certification agencies to ensure systems are safe, secure, reliable, scalable and operationally relevant.

He also emphasised the importance of cyber security, sovereign technology stacks, secure networks, data privacy and indigenous artificial intelligence algorithms as key elements of India's journey towards complete self-reliance in drone warfare capabilities.

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