India’s Counter-Drone Opportunity Grows as AI Enters the Battlefield | Defence Pulse

India’s expanding drone ecosystem is creating a parallel opportunity for companies developing systems to detect, track and neutralise hostile unmanned aircraft, according to Tejaswi Singh, Senior Manager, Aerospace and Defence, EY India.

Speaking on WION’s Defence Pulse, Singh identified counter-drone systems, artificial intelligence and electronic warfare resilience as important areas for industry participation.

“Every military is buying drones, which means every military also needs systems to detect them and disable them,” he said.

Building a connected defence

Singh said recent procurement activity and innovation challenges reflected growing demand for drones and counter-drone capabilities. He also described an Army brainstorming session he attended, where discussions examined how industry could contribute to a broader counter-unmanned aircraft systems grid.

The objective, he explained, was to “integrate different types of systems coming in from different companies” so they could communicate with one another.

Such integration would allow sensors, tracking software and countermeasures to contribute to a coordinated response rather than operate independently. For Indian companies, the opportunity therefore extends beyond individual products to making different technologies work together.

AI’s first battlefield impact

Singh expects AI’s strongest near-term impact in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, alongside electronic warfare. The growing volume of information from drone cameras, radars and other sensors creates a major processing challenge for militaries, he explained. “We need AI-powered image recognition systems, sensor fusion, anomaly detection,” Singh said, highlighting tools that can help operators interpret information and identify activity requiring attention.

Operating through electronic disruption

Singh pointed to encouraging investment in technologies designed to keep military platforms functioning under electronic attack.

“We are seeing investments in secure communications, anti-jam data links, mesh networking, AI-enabled autonomy,” he said.

He distinguished between developing equipment that jams an adversary and building platforms capable of continuing their missions when the adversary attempts to disrupt them. The latter, he said, is “arguably very hard”.

For India’s defence industry, the next step is combining detection, intelligent processing and resilient communications into dependable systems that armed forces can deploy and sustain at scale.