The Indian Army demonstrated how India's air defence systems saved the Golden Temple in Amritsar and other cities in Punjab from Pakistani missile and drone attacks on May 8 and 9, 2025.
The Indian Air Force on Monday said all its military bases and systems continue to remain fully operational, and ready to undertake any further missions if the need arises.
Indian Armed Forces brought down a number of these drones using kinetic and non-kinetic means.
India does not have the facilities needed for developing advanced aerospace products. There is only one wind tunnel in the country, the almost six decade old one in the National Aeronautics Laboratory.
The incursions, according to Taiwan, were made by aircraft, including 12 J-11, 6 J-10, 18 J-16, six SU-30, CH-4, WZ-7, Y-8 EW, Y-8 ESW and KJ-500.
'An armed helicopter equipped with counter-drone systems will provide the airborne counter-drone capability and flexibility needed to protect India's critical assets.'
"We will be embarking on UCAV, which will be an unmanned aerial vehicle with weapons. This will not only do surveillance but fire on identified targets," Dr V K Saraswat, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister and DRDO Director General, told media-persons in Bengaluru.
The Indian Air Force is planning to induct its first self-destructing combat drones from Israel by next year for enhancing its firepower.
In contrast to the US which is "doing a lot of work" in developing and manufacturing Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs), India is more focused on developing UAVs as it considers intelligence gathering more challenging in future wars, Defence Research and Development Organisation said on Friday.
UAVs are an intrinsic part of today's technology driven battlefield. Indians don't seem to be taking the challenge with the degree of urgency that is required, says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
Burned by the shooting down of a MiG-21 aircraft and the capture of its pilot after a dogfight over the India-Pakistan border in February 2019, CATS eliminates the need to send pilots into enemy air space.
'If UAV technology is used by the adversary to target VIPs or strategic targets it would be a different ball game altogether,' says Group Captain Murli Menon (retd).
As India's international role expands, so must our capabilities, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
'Landmark developments herald the end of two decades of stagnation in the army's modernisation plans,' notes Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
In the light of India's increasingly 'darkening' threat environment and the convergence of strategic interests between China and Pakistan, the IAF's declining combat capabilities are a cause for concern, says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
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