Indian Air Force turns to homegrown firefighting robot developed under iDEX programme

In the hours after a missile or drone strike, the most important question for an air force is not always how many planes were hit. It is how fast the base can put out the fires, cool the fuel and munitions, and start flying again.

During Operation Sindoor in May 2025, Pakistan tried to hit several Indian air bases with drones and missiles. India later struck Pakistani bases in return. Most of the incoming attacks were intercepted, but the episode still showed a clear risk- fires in hangars, fuel farms or ammunition areas can shut down a base even if the runways stay intact. That is the job of a new Indian-made firefighting robot now being bought by the Air Force.

The machine, called the FF Bot, is a six-wheeled, remote-controlled vehicle built by a small company near Ahmedabad called Swadeshi Empresa. Operators stay well outside the danger zone and drive it into the smoke and heat using cameras that can see through flames. It sprays water or foam, cools itself while it works, and can even drag a heavy hose or tow loads of several tonnes across rubble.

The company has made firefighting equipment for decades and started building robots in 2017. The military version was developed under the government’s iDEX programme, which funds startups to solve problems for the armed forces. It was the first project of its kind under one of iDEX’s early challenges to get formal approval in 2023.

iDEX, Innovations for Defence Excellence, is a programme started by India’s Ministry of Defence in 2018, and its main job is to help small companies, startups and individual innovators create new technology for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

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The Navy has already taken dozens of the robots. The Army signed a deal in January 2026 for 18 units, mainly for ammunition depots. The Air Force has ordered 80. The robot was also tested in live fire and debris scenarios during the Air Force’s big Vayu Shakti exercise in the Rajasthan desert earlier this year.

In June 2026 the Ministry of Defence’s quality agency gave the FF Bot a formal certificate that it is “Fit for Indian Military Use.” The stamp confirms it passed official trials and can help the company sell the same machine abroad.

For the Air Force, the robot is not a weapon. It is a tool for the hours after an attack, when crews need to get close to burning fuel or unstable munitions without risking more lives. Officials say the same machine could also be useful at civilian airports, power stations and oil depots.