Punjab Police mulls to acquire drone combat tech for VVIP security

The state police have already constituted a standing committee on drones with members including IGP counter-intelligence, DIG-border range, DIG, Ferozepur Range, DIG, Admin, state armed police, DIG cybercrime, AIG technical services and AIG personnel

Punjab Police is contemplating buying drone combat technologies to be used especially for VVIP visits.

In the past few years, drone sightings and incursions from Pakistan have increased manifold.

The state police have already constituted a standing committee on drones with members including IGP counter-intelligence, DIG-border range, DIG, Ferozepur Range, DIG, Admin, state armed police, DIG cybercrime, AIG technical services and AIG personnel. This committee, as per the information, have submitted detailed recommendations about the procurement of a few technologies to counter the threats from drones.

In the past few years, drone sightings and incursions from Pakistan have increased manifold.

According to official data, at least 244 drones (till August) have been spotted in Punjab so far this year, with a more than two-fold increase in drone activity as compared to last year. Fifty-five drones have been shot down by BSF this year. While 221 drone activities were detected inside the Indian territory, 22 were inside Pakistan.

BSF’s internal data reveals that 311 drones were spotted this year across the entire western border — Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, with around 75% of these sightings in Punjab.

According to a senior police official, who did not wish to be named, said the standing committee on drones has studied the availability of various types of radars and anti-drone system being deployed for testing on the International Border with Pakistan and have assessed the technological requirement to counter drones.

“Few suggestions about the procurement of technologies have come from the committee. We are on the last stage of finalising the procurement of drone combat techniques and orders will be given following the set procedure,” a senior police official said.

“Several states as well as central agencies are already working on the purchase and use of drones, training of personnel in handling drones and procurement of equipment for combating rogue drones. We are first going to procure drone combating equipment that will be used during the VVIP visits,” a senior Punjab Police functionary said.

The changing tactics and advanced drones being used by criminals in Pakistan was another reason behind the urgent need to secure drone combat technology, a senior Punjab police official said on the condition of anonymity.

The Punjab government it’s learnt is also mulling a proposal to set up a Centre of Excellence for drones. The idea behind the centre is capacity building to deal with this menace and having a research centre to analyse various technical aspects to counter the issue.

“The drones can carry big loads like 20kg without making much noise and at the same time a few drones can fly quite high with a range of 3-4 kilometres from the operators without getting visible to the naked eye. Moreover, drones are available in the market without any regulatory mechanism. In such a scenario, the threat perceptions from drones during VVIP visits are very high,” the senior official said.

According to another member of the standing committee, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed an anti-drone system that is being deployed in Delhi for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s safety in 2021.

This technology can bring down micro-drones through either jamming of command-and-control links or by damaging the electronics of drones through laser-based directed energy weapons. In addition, this anti-drone technology can detect and jam micro-drones at a distance of up to 3 km and laser a target up to 1-1.25 km far, depending on the wattage of the laser weapon.

Another indigenous anti-drone equipment developed by the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) of DRDO. This counter-drone system developed by DRDO was tested in Punjab borders in 2020 and has been put through extensive trials since then. This equipment has a laser weapon which is effective till 1,000 meters range with other features, including a radio frequency jammer and a GPS jammer/spoofer.

The standing committee is said to have studied the drone combating techniques developed by other countries as well.