It's a plane, it's a drone, no it's a bird: Indian Army's new anti-drone weapon

During the ongoing joint military exercise between India and the United States in Auli, Uttarakhand, the Indian Army demonstrated a unique weapon from their armoury- a trained eagle that can shoot down drones!

This step is being taken at a time when there are multiple threats of attack drones onthe border of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan. Many reports in the past have suggested that these drones also smuggle drugs and weapons through the border into Indian states.

The initiative of training these predator birds is started by the Remount Veterinary Corps (RVC) in Meerut. They are training black eagles and falcons to take down unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones in the air.

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One such trained bird named "Arjun" was recently showcased by the Indian Army in video footage, in which the bird can be seen sitting on the hand of a soldier, and then locating an on-air target accurately before it starts encircling the enemy drone.

"The eagles have taken down several hundred of them (quadcopters) in training, at times destroying them completely. Since these are quadcopters, none of the eagles have been injured so far”, said a source in the defence establishment.

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The Eagles are not only capable to work in isolation but can also coordinate and provide assistance to their canine friends. The Indian Army also demonstrated a real-world scenario in which the dog alerts the soldier to the danger posed by the drone after hearing its sound and the eagle determined the precise location of the enemy drone and encircles it while it is in the air.

There are reports that RVC is also training these birds for surveillance and monitoring by fitting cameras to their heads to record videos. As drones are becoming an irreplaceable weapon in global warfare in both offensive and defensive operations, it is crucial to invest in high-tech drone technology. But training eagles to attack drones is a low-tech solution to the high-tech drone problem.

According to reports, these efforts are in the training phase and the eagles have not been deployed yet in any operations yet.