In September, the Ministry of Defence released the Technology Perspective and Capability Roadmap (TPCR) 2025, a detailed 15-year road map aimed at transforming the armed forces into a future-ready, self-reliant force. Focussed on the defence industry and the requirements for the forces, the TPCR laid out the modernisation plan, indigenous innovation, and preparedness for multidomain warfare.
The TPCR pressed for the need of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) as a key technological focus for the forces, including medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) and high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) RPAs for intelligence, search, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities and deep-strike missions for specific land, maritime, and air operations. This includes the integration of advanced payloads, enhanced endurance, and stealth capabilities for these unmanned systems.
India’s indigenous Tactical Airborne Platform for Aerial Surveillance–Beyond Horizon (TAPAS-BH) programme has gained renewed significance in the strategic context to develop a MALE-class drone for ISR missions. The TAPAS-BH, an evolved version of the Rustom-I drone, was developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
The RPA was envisioned to fly at 30,000 feet with an endurance of 24 hours, meeting criteria like synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and electro-optical or infrared to capture high-resolution images and detect heat signatures above clouds. However, test results revealed significant shortfalls: reaching only 28,000 feet with a flight for about 18 hours and weighing 2,800 kilograms (kg) — up from the planned 1,800 kg — affecting performance and failing to meet essential viability.
For years, India’s unmanned fleet has been dominated by Israeli-origin platforms such as the Searcher and Heron, both MALE drones.
Owing to the persistent shortcomings in TAPAS-BH’s performance and operational readiness, the armed forces were compelled to look beyond domestic options to meet their immediate ISR and long-endurance operational requirements. Despite being a major stride in the development of indigenous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the platform struggled to achieve the endurance, payload efficiency, and reliability benchmarks demanded by the services.
Air Marshal Ravi Kapoor (retired), former Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Central Air Command, and an expert in ISR operations, underlined that India’s reliance on large UAVs such as TAPAS-BH and the imported MQ-9 Reaper stems from the growing need for persistent ISR capabilities and precision-strike options across vast and contested frontiers.
He said that while satellites provide vital strategic surveillance, they fall short in delivering real-time intelligence and continuous coverage. “UAVs fill a crucial void between satellite imagery and manned reconnaissance,” he said, adding that “they enable uninterrupted monitoring across regions like Ladakh, Siachen, and the Eastern theatre where challenging terrain and visibility constraints make both MALE and HALE class drones indispensable”.
According to him, MALE and HALE drones serve complementary roles: MALE drones provide endurance and flexibility at medium altitudes, whereas HALE platforms offer safety and greater line-of-sight advantages at higher altitudes — crucial for ISR in mountainous regions.
Last year, India and the United States (US) signed a deal for the acquisition of the MQ-9B variants of the SeaGuardian and the SkyGuardian, made by US-based General Atomics, to allow precision strike and real-time ISR across diverse borders.
Under the agreement, India will procure a total of 31 RPAs, including 16 SkyGuardians (eight each for the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force) and 15 SeaGuardians for the Indian Navy at an estimated cost of $3.5 billion. With deliveries expected by early 2029, this marks a major capability leap in India’s long-endurance and precision-strike drone operations.
India’s push for indigenous UAVs continues to face structural hurdles, from rigid procurement norms to the forces’ preference for already proven foreign platforms.
Sai Pattabiram, cofounder and managing director of drone manufacturer Zuppa Geo Navigation Technologies, said that India needs a fundamental rethinking of how it develops and inducts UAVs. He argued that the current procurement model “demands a system to be combat-proven even before it is field-tested”, creating what he called “a paradox that prevents indigenous innovation from maturing”.
“Projects like TAPAS have shown that India can build large, capable UAVs, but our ecosystem doesn’t yet support fast iteration or quick induction. By the time a system matures, the technology generation has already shifted globally,” he said.
Pattabiram said a phased induction model similar to that followed in Israel and the US, where promising UAVs are inducted in limited numbers for operational evaluation. “You cannot expect a technology to prove itself without giving it the operational space to evolve,” he said.
He stressed that user-developer collaboration must be institutionalised rather than episodic. Developers, DRDO scientists, and the armed forces, he said, should work as part of “mission-based working groups” from the design stage itself.
“The DRDO builds great airframes, but integration from sensors to AI (artificial intelligence) layers needs the private sector’s speed and innovation,” he said, adding that shared testing infrastructure and co-development frameworks could help close that gap. He also highlighted the need for a deeper institutional framework that fosters collaboration, agility, and innovation across stakeholders right from the drawing board to deployment.
Pattabiram envisioned the future of UAVs as defined by autonomy and AI rather than remote control. “The world is moving to swarm-enabled, AI-decision drones — India has the talent to lead there, provided we build an enabling ecosystem,” he said.
According to him, India must not only align its development cycles with global technology generations but also adopt long-term programmatic funding, enable field-level experimentation, and create a user-developer-industry synergy similar to the US’ DARPA model or Israel’s dual-use drone ecosystem.
The cross-border threat of drones, including reported incidents of unmanned systems being used to carry drugs, ammunition, and contraband across the India-Pakistan frontier, has added a worrying dimension to regional insecurity, highlighting the urgent need for continuous, long-dwell ISR from MALE/HALE platforms that can maintain a persistent watch, initiate rapid response, and help clear the image directly from censor to ground station.
Despite the surge in startups for small UAVs and the vision to make a drone hub by 2030, India’s drone sector continues to suffer from a weak foundation in indigenous research and core technology development. Many startups still operate on a copy-paste model, changing foreign designs or assembling imported components rather than investing in original research and development.
The dependence in critical systems like avionics, sensors, and autopilot software highlights a deeper structural gap: the absence of research-intensive funding and institutional mechanisms to nurture innovation. Without a deliberate push toward building intellectual property and deep-tech capabilities, India risks remaining a nation of assemblers rather than designers in the global UAV market.
Abhishek Jain, cofounder of the Pune-based smart and autonomous munitions manufacturing firm ZeusNumerix, told the Blueprint that while a growing number of private firms are emerging in the small drone and loitering munitions space, India’s indigenous design and component ecosystem remains alarmingly shallow. “Even today, many of our drone designs are either inspired, borrowed, or based on technology transfers,” he said. In other words, what is often presented as indigenous manufacturing largely amounts to assembly — combining imported airframes, motors, and open-source autopilot systems rather than building a drone from the ground up.
According to Jain, one of the most critical vulnerabilities lies in the autopilot: the “brain” of the drone. The majority of systems currently used in India depend on imported or open-source autopilot software, a situation that raises both technological and security concerns.
Jain said that this dependency leaves Indian platforms open to compromise, citing examples of drones embedded with coded restrictions that prevent them from operating in sensitive areas. He also highlighted the concern within the defence sector over the presence of Chinese components, from frames to communication modules, which could carry embedded “kill switches” or location indicators.
India’s reliance on large UAVs such as the imported MQ-9 Reaper stems from the growing need for persistent ISR capabilities and precision-strike options across vast and contested frontiers (Photo: REUTERS)
Beyond components, Jain pointed to the sheer complexity of building indigenous autopilot systems: a process that can take three to four years and involve writing millions of lines of code. “It’s not a 25-line script. You need teams that understand aerodynamics, controls, coding, and embedded electronics, all working together,” he said. Despite a growing talent pool in India, he said that only a few institutions and startups can currently achieve that level of system integration.
Jain said that India’s drone ecosystem must go beyond mere assembly and focus on building a sovereign technology base. “Whether small or large, we need to know that every part inside is ours,” he said, adding that the country still faces a long road in developing critical hardware and software systems — from autopilots to sensors.
Building on the challenges highlighted by Jain in developing a fully indigenous UAV ecosystem, Kapoor reinforced the operational perspective, stressing how platforms like TAPAS-BH, despite current limitations, can still play a critical role if complemented by strategic collaboration between the DRDO and private industry.
“We should not abandon TAPAS simply because it hasn’t met every benchmark. If it can stay airborne for 17 hours instead of 24, it just means we need more units in rotation,” he said, stressing that it could serve effectively in the maritime domain and limited ISR roles. He added that public-private collaboration could help bridge the performance gap. “The DRDO has done its bit, but it cannot operate in isolation. The private sector today has access to better materials, engines, and design expertise. If the DRDO collaborates with industry players, we can scale TAPAS to its full potential,” he said.
He pointed out that IIT Kanpur is doing “huge work on UAVs” but remains underutilised. “Why is IIT Kanpur not being integrated into TAPAS development?”
Highlighting the role of academia, he said: “Academia, private industry, and the armed forces must form a triangle of innovation as done by China: from importing one generation but ensuring the next was fully indigenous.”
He also raised concerns over India’s dependence on foreign manufacturers for key drone components like SAR and optical payloads, noting that such reliance remains a bottleneck for achieving complete self-reliance. “Our atmanirbharta (self-reliance) is not yet 100 per cent. Even the LCA (light combat aircraft) Mk1A imports its engine, radar, and EW (electronic warfare) suite,” he said.
“A small imported component can render the entire system useless if it fails or is compromised,” he said, adding that India should form technology partnerships with countries like France, which are relatively independent of the US ecosystem.
Kapoor stressed the need for interoperability among the three services, urging that all drone data should feed into a unified, secure network. “Every service buying different drones from different vendors creates silos. We must follow a common data-sharing protocol and build a central agency to receive and process ISR data for all forces. Eventually, we must achieve real-time sensor-level image analysis, rather than post-processing everything at the ground station,” he said.
According to him, the road ahead lies in an integrated doctrine and operational philosophy, where drones are used judiciously alongside manned assets. “UAVs are not the answer to everything,” he said, “but they are crucial for network-centric warfare. The key is to identify their role from tactical, operational, and strategic — to build systems that talk to each other seamlessly.”
 "Drone hub 2030: India's distant dream")
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