Indian Army orders mobile anti-drone system: What can Indrajaal Ranger do?

The Indian Army is set to strengthen its defences against hostile drones along the borders with the Indrajaal Ranger, a mobile counter-drone platform that is capable of detecting, tracking and neutralising a wide range of unmanned aerial threats.

The Army has signed a contract worth around ₹155 crore with Indrajaal Autonomous Defense Systems and Sigma Advanced Systems for the Indrajaal Ranger. The consortium has also received a ₹10-crore order from an urban police force for VVIP protection and urban security, according to media reports.

What makes the Ranger truly unique is its ability to take anti-drone warfare on the move. Unlike fixed defences, the patrol vehicle can be deployed along convoy routes, at forward posts and across porous border areas, providing mobile protection wherever drone threats emerge.

The Indrajaal Ranger combines several counter-drone technologies within a single platform. It features an integrated cyber takeover unit, GNSS spoofing and RF jamming, along with a spring-loaded kill switch. These capabilities, put together, allow the system to neutralise rogue drones within a four-kilometre combat envelope.

Besides, its cyber takeover capability can be used to hijack a hostile drone in mid-flight, while its other mechanisms can disrupt or physically neutralise the threat.

These capabilities are coordinated through an AI-driven processing core and SkyOS, which acts as the central command layer of the system. As the vehicle enters high-threat areas, SkyOS continuously processes data from the counter-UAS sensors to detect, classify and prioritise airborne threats. Once a target is identified, the system coordinates the appropriate autonomous response, allowing threats to be neutralised within seconds.

Another key capability of the Indrajaal Ranger is the range of drone threats it is designed to counter.

The platform can detect, track and defeat threats across the drone spectrum, ranging from fast, low-flying racing drones and commercially available quadcopters to coordinated drone swarms. This allows the Ranger to respond to drones being used for different purposes, including reconnaissance, contraband drops and ammunition delivery over hostile terrain.

Its mobility also makes the platform suitable for both border and urban environments, allowing counter-drone capabilities to move with security forces rather than remain confined to fixed installations.

Indrajaal Autonomous Defense Systems founder and CEO Kiran Raju Penumacha said drone threats now extend well beyond conventional battlefields to borders, airports, cities, public events, critical infrastructure and VVIP movements.

"The Indrajaal Ranger was designed around this reality, enabling security forces to take autonomous counter-drone capability wherever the threat moves," he said.

Sigma Advanced Systems CEO Sunil Kalidindi said the programme demonstrates the ability of India's defence manufacturing ecosystem to develop, manufacture and deliver advanced indigenous technologies at an operational scale.