New Delhi: The Indian Air Force has opened its first Dronathon at the Pokhran Field Firing Range in Jaisalmer, inviting industry to prove unmanned technologies under live operational conditions rather than in controlled demonstrations.
Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, Vice Chief of the Air Staff, inaugurated Dronathon-2026 on Monday. Senior officials from the Ministry of Defence, Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff, the Indian Army and the Border Security Force attended the ceremony. The three-day event, running from 14 to 16 September, brings together more than 20 defence firms, start-ups, MSMEs, defence public sector units and innovators from India’s unmanned systems sector.
The IAF describes unmanned aircraft as a complement to manned aviation, giving commanders extra options for reach, persistence, responsiveness and flexibility. Participants will fly and display systems covering surveillance and reconnaissance, autonomous flight, swarm operations, electronic warfare and counter-unmanned aircraft systems. Organisers say the emphasis is no longer on showing how technology works, but on whether it delivers reliable operational effect in demanding and contested environments and can adapt to changing threats.
On the opening day, Dixit released the IAF UAS Roadmap. The document is intended to give industry, academia and research organisations a clearer picture of the service’s capability priorities so that development effort can be aligned with future requirements.
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The Air Force also demonstrated Vayu UTtaM, its indigenous multi-mode Unmanned Traffic Management system. In a real-time trial at Pokhran, the system detected and tracked both military and civilian unmanned aircraft.
Officials said the capability is designed to manage increasingly crowded airspace and to identify and mitigate unauthorised or rogue drones. They added that Vayu UTtaM could have uses beyond the military, including civil aviation safety, protection of critical infrastructure and public safety.
Dronathon-2026 is presented as part of the IAF’s push for self-reliance across the entire unmanned ecosystem. That includes not only airframes but propulsion, sensors and payloads, communications, autonomy, electronic warfare, countermeasures and airspace management. The event at Pokhran is the first time the IAF has assembled industry at a field firing range specifically to assess emerging unmanned technologies in conditions that approximate operational use.
