Govt working on technologies to neutralise rogue drones

The civil aviation ministry is working on technologies that can be used to neutralise rogue drones, a senior official said today.
After extensive discussions internally, the ministry today unveiled the draft regulations for unmanned aircraft systems and once implemented, the norms would permit their commercial use.
"We are working on the technologies for neutralising all rogue drones," civil aviation secretary R N Choubey said.
Rogue drones could be ones that deviate from the permitted area or those which have not taken any permission at all, he noted.
With regard to having such technologies, Choubey said he already had one round of meeting.

"And another meeting is on November 8 when we will be interacting with companies which have technologies for neutralising rogue drones," he said and stressed that this aspect is completely outside the purview of the draft norms issued today.

While responding to queries from reporters, Choubey emphasised that drones are a very fast evolving technology and the regulatory framework is not going to be a static one.
"We have already provided that above a certain weight category, the flight plan has to be filed and air defence clearance has to be obtained.
"Now, those are the drones which will be monitored... drone technology also permits that the approvals are loaded on to the drone itself... (so that) the drone does not deviate from what is approved. Even if the operator wants it to deviate, the drone will not be able to. There are technologies which are available for this," he added.

As per the draft Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) prepared by aviation regulator DGCA, drones for civilian use would require a unique identification number as well as radio frequency tags.
To a question on whether there could be separate Air Traffic Control (ATC) centres for drones, the civil aviation secretary said, "perhaps yes".
"We cannot say separate ATCs for drones but if the number of drones increases, then we need to have more segregated way (of monitoring them)," he noted.
About the draft norms, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said the ministry has opened the door for a lot of experiments and innovations in India.

"Under the framework (draft norms), can you operate passenger drones like air rickshaws... yes you can operate. You will have to innovate... Innovations have to be done by the drone designers and operators. We have a progressive framework which has been prepared keeping future in the mind," the minister said.
On whether there can be passenger drones, he said drone technologies are evolving very quickly.
"You can go to You Tube and you can see many different applications for drones, including passenger drones. Already, people are experimenting with these kinds of technologies...," Sinha said.