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The night air in eastern Ukraine is crisp, and a myriad of stars scatter above a small crew of soldiers watching for Iranian-designed Shahed drones that Russia launches in waves. Such teams are deployed across the country as part of a constantly evolving effort to counter the low-cost loitering munitions that have become a deadly weapon of modern warfare, from Ukraine to the Middle East. While waiting, the crew from the 127th Brigade tests and fine-tunes their self-made interceptor drones, searching for flaws that could undermine performance once the buzzing threat appears. When Shahed drones first appeared in autumn 2022, Ukraine had few ways to stop them. Today, drone crews intercept them in flight with continually adapting technology. In recent years, Ukraine's domestic drone interceptor market has burgeoned, producing some key players who tout their products at international arms shows. But it's on the front line where small teams have become laboratories of rapid military ...
India must develop a robust ecosystem for drone manufacturing, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday, highlighting lessons from the Russia-Ukraine and Iran-Israel conflicts. Addressing the National Defence Industries Conclave, Singh said the two conflicts demonstrated the significance of drones and counter-drone technologies. "As the entire world watches the ongoing conflict involving Russia and Ukraine, along with Iran-Israel, we can clearly see the extremely significant role of drones and counter-drone technologies in future warfare," he said. "Today, there is a need to build such a drone manufacturing ecosystem in India in which we are completely self-reliant," he said. The conclave was attended by top executives of leading domestic defence manufacturing firms as well as officials of defence public sector undertakings. "For India's defence preparedness and strategic autonomy, it is essential that India becomes fully self-reliant in drone manufacturing," Singh said. T
The Army on Thursday recovered a consignment suspected to have been dropped by a drone along the India-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, recovering 70 rounds of ammunition and a suspected improvised explosive device, officials said. According to them, the consignment was dropped early in the morning in an area between Rangar Nallah and the Poonch River in the Chakkan da Bagh belt of Khari village. During inspection, Army personnel found a bag containing 70 rounds of ammunition and a yellow tiffin-box that is suspected to contain about two kilograms of IED, officials said. The Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) was called to the spot, and they later defused the IED through a controlled explosion, the officials said. Joint teams of the Indian Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Special Operations Group have launched a search operation in the area.
The icy ground crackling under their feet, members of an elite Ukrainian drone-hunting team set up for a long night. Antennas and sensors are clipped to a light stand. Monitors and controls are pulled from hard cases, and a game-changing new weapon is readied for deployment. The Sting, shaped like a flying thermos, is one of Ukraine's new homegrown interceptors. The unit's commander says the interceptors can effectively counter Russia's fast-evolving suicide drones, which are now flying faster and at higher altitudes. Every destroyed target is something that did not hit our homes, our families, our power plants, said the officer, known only by the call sign Loi, in line with Ukrainian military protocol. The enemy does not sleep, and neither do we. Nightly attacks on Ukrainian cities and power infrastructure have forced Kyiv to rewrite the air defense rule book and develop cut-price drone killers costing as little as $1,000. Interceptors went from prototype to mass production in j
When Olena Horlova leaves home or drives through town outside the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, she fears that she's a target. She believes that Russian drones could be waiting on a rooftop, along the road or aiming for her car. To protect herself and her two daughters, the girls stay indoors, and she stays alert sometimes returning home at night along dark roads without headlights so as not to be seen. After living through the occupation, refusing to cooperate with Russian forces and hiding from them, Horlova, like so many other residents, found that even after her town was liberated in 2022, the ordeal didn't end. Kherson was among the first places where Russian forces began using short-range, first-person view, or FPV, drones against civilians. The drones are equipped with livestreaming cameras that let operators see and select their targets in real time. The tactic later spread more than 300 kilometres (185 miles) along the right bank of the Dnipro River, across the ...
In a warehouse more than 1,500 kilometres from Ukraine's capital, workers in northern Denmark painstakingly piece together anti-drone devices. Some of the devices will be exported to Kyiv in the hopes of jamming Russian technology on the battlefield, while others will be shipped across Europe in efforts to combat mysterious drone intrusions into NATO's airspace that have the entire continent on edge. Two Danish companies whose business was predominantly defense-related now say they have a surge in new clients seeking to use their technology to protect sites like airports, military installations and critical infrastructure, all of which have been targeted by drone flyovers in recent weeks. Weibel Scientific's radar drone detection technology was deployed ahead of a key EU summit earlier this year to Copenhagen Airport, where unidentified drone sightings closed the airspace for hours in September. Counter-drone firm MyDefence, from its warehouse in northern Denmark, builds handheld, .
Security forces have launched a search operation after a Pakistani drone was sighted hovering over a forward village along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district, officials said on Saturday. The drone-like object was seen coming from the Pakistani side and hovered over Nanga village in the Ramgarh sector late Friday, triggering alarm in the border belt, they said. According to officials, security forces and police teams were immediately deployed to scour the area and ensure that there is no airdropping of any payload like narcotics and weapons from across the border. The search operation was underway when last reports were received, officials said, adding that security has been heightened in adjoining villages as a precautionary measure.