Armed forces to test capabilities of drones, counter-drone systems during exercise

NEW DELHI, Sep 23: The armed forces will test the capabilities of some of its drones and counter-drone systems during an exercise by the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS) in the first week of October, a senior official said on Tuesday.
The exercise will see the participation of all three services, and will take place five months after India launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.
It will be held somewhere in Madhya Pradesh from October 6-10, sources said.
In his address at a conference on air defence systems here, Air Marshal Rakesh Sinha, Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (OPS) at HQ IDS, also spoke of the lessons drawn from Operation Sindoor and the need to “stay ahead” of the adversary in military thinking and planning.
“What we have seen in Operation Sindoor, is a way the battle space or battlefield is evolving. It requires our urgent attention, and decisive innovation to deal with this threat that is already looming,” he said.
After India’s precision strikes on several terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) under Operation Sindoor, several drone attacks were launched as counter-offensives by the Pakistani side, targeting the western sector.“Operation Sindoor, per se, has given us a warning as well as an opportunity to accelerate our counter-UAS, so that we do not the lessons the hard way, when we are faced with the next engagement.“Therefore, we must turn our lessons into actions, collaboration, innovation and unwavering focus to enhance our operational effectiveness,”Air Marshal Sinha said.The conference hosted in Delhi was themed on ‘Counter UAVs & Air Defence Systems: The Future of Modern Warfare’ and saw participation of senior military officers, representatives of various firms in the defence industry and domain experts. (PTI)