With drone incursions rising sharply across India’s borders, defence technology firm BonV Aero has called for a fundamental shift in the country’s counter-unmanned aerial systems strategy, asserting that radio-frequency jamming alone is no longer sufficient and must be complemented by physical, hard-kill interception capabilities.
The threat escalated further during Operation Sindoor, when Pakistan deployed over 300 drones across 36 locations in the largest drone offensive ever directed at Indian territory. China, meanwhile, operates a fleet of more than 50,000 UAVs, with military drones deployed at more than a dozen forward positions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
“The era of signal disruption as a standalone solution is nearing its limits. Autonomous FPV (First Person View) drones operating on pre-programmed paths do not depend on pilot signals, and once they enter terminal phases, only physical interception can effectively neutralise them,” BonV Aero Chief Executive Officer Satyabrata Satapathy said.
The government has moved to address the gap. The Rs 2.38 lakh crore defence procurement package cleared in March 2026 included the 2K22 Tunguska, a tracked platform mounting twin 30mm autocannons alongside short-range missiles in order to counter low-altitude threats that the S-400 cannot cost-effectively engage. DRDO’s Bhargavastra counter-swarm system, successfully test-fired in 2025, uses micro-rockets with a 20-metre lethal radius to neutralise simultaneous multi-drone attacks, while VSHORADS provides a man-portable hard-kill layer for high-speed aerial threats.
Critical gaps, however, persist in urban environments and near sensitive infrastructure where lethal systems risk collateral damage.
“To mitigate this risk, BonV Aero has recently signed a strategic partnership with ParaZero Technologies to bring the DefendAir kinetic net-interception system exclusively to Indian defence and security agencies,” said Satapathy.
Slated for local manufacture under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, the system intercepts hostile UAVs through net-catchers, offering a communication-neutral, non-lethal kill capability where electronic countermeasures fall short.
“This is an asymmetric challenge where affordability and scalability favour the attacker. Defensive systems must be adaptive, layered, and capable of responding across multiple threat scenarios,” added Satapathy.
