Dronathon-2026 Opens at Pokhran Firing Range, Indian Air Force Showcase of Indigenous Drone and Counter-Drone Technologies

🗞️ Why in News The Indian Air Force (IAF) opened Dronathon-2026 at the Pokhran Firing Range in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, on 14 September 2026. The three-day event runs to 16 September 2026 and is an industry-facing showcase of indigenous Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (Counter-UAS or CUAS), aligned with the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat in Defence initiative and structured to let the armed forces evaluate platforms and payloads under Thar desert conditions.

What Dronathon-2026 Is

Dronathon-2026 is the Indian Air Force’s periodic capability demonstration for domestic UAS and CUAS manufacturers, systems integrators, defence public sector undertakings and technology start-ups. The demonstration is organised in the operational environment of the Pokhran Firing Range, a large tri-service test area in Jaisalmer district that is used by the Army, Navy and the IAF for live weapons trials and joint exercises.

The scope of the demonstration is broad: long-endurance surveillance platforms, loitering munitions, swarm and manned-unmanned teaming solutions, autonomous navigation in a GPS-denied environment, and Counter-UAS soft-kill (jamming, spoofing, cyber) and hard-kill (kinetic and directed-energy) engagements.

Why Now: The Operational Backdrop

Dronathon-2026 sits in the shadow of a fast-shifting operational reality. For context, the May 2025 India-Pakistan hostilities in the aftermath of the 22 April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack exposed both the scale of the drone threat spectrum, from swarms of low-cost quadcopters used for reconnaissance to larger loitering munitions used against forward posts, and the maturity gap between imported CUAS solutions and the pace at which the threat evolves.

At the global level, campaigns in Ukraine and West Asia have shown that low-cost UAS supply chains can substitute for expensive stand-off munitions at scale, that swarm tactics stress even mature air defences, and that CUAS effectiveness declines quickly if the counter platform is not continuously updated to match the changing frequency, waveform and autonomy of the attacking drone.

The Policy Frame: Atmanirbhar Bharat and Positive Indigenisation Lists

The government’s Positive Indigenisation Lists for Defence Public Sector Undertakings and the Services are the primary demand-signalling instrument that a Dronathon-style showcase feeds into. Five Positive Indigenisation Lists have been notified to date for defence platforms, systems and sub-systems, alongside five parallel lists for DPSUs. Categories reserved for indigenous procurement include a widening list of UAS, CUAS, sensors, electronic warfare systems and precision guidance kits.

The Drone Rules, 2021, and the Production-Linked Incentive scheme for drones and drone components (launched in 2021 with Rs 120 crore over three years, notified 30 September 2021) form the civil-side scaffolding for the same industrial ecosystem. On the export side, the General Authorisation for Export notified by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade in 2019 covers dual-use items under the Wassenaar Arrangement framework.

Pokhran: The Test-Site Rationale

The Pokhran Firing Range in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district is one of the country’s oldest and largest test sites. It was the venue for Pokhran-I (“Smiling Buddha”) on 18 May 1974 and Pokhran-II (“Operation Shakti”) from 11 to 13 May 1998. As a live weapons range it offers a large uncluttered airspace, arid terrain representative of much of the country’s western border, long line-of-sight distances for real endurance and swarm trials, and restricted air corridors that allow trials of Counter-UAS jamming and directed-energy systems without civilian-spectrum spillover.

Diagram-in-Words

UPSC Relevance

GS Paper 3. Security challenges and their management, including cybersecurity; role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security; achievements of Indians in science and technology; indigenisation of technology and developing new technology.

A question worth preparing. “Recent conflicts have shown that low-cost unmanned aerial systems can substitute for expensive stand-off weapons at scale. Examine the operational, industrial and regulatory implications for India, with reference to the ongoing indigenisation of drone and counter-drone systems. (250 words)”

The Mains framing. The drone versus counter-drone contest is a speed-of-iteration contest, not a one-time procurement decision. India’s evolving policy stack, the Positive Indigenisation Lists, the Drone Rules 2021, the PLI, iDEX, the Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme, and Dronathon-style scheduled evaluations, is beginning to close that iteration cycle inside the country. What remains to be built is the spectrum-management side, since Counter-UAS is a spectrum-dominance problem before it is a shooter problem.

📌 Facts Corner, Knowledgepedia

Prelims, statement-ready facts:

• Dronathon-2026 is an Indian Air Force industry demonstration held at the Pokhran Firing Range, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, from 14 to 16 September 2026.
• The focus is indigenous Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (CUAS).
• The Drone Rules, 2021 replaced the earlier Unmanned Aircraft System Rules, 2021, and made DGCA the civil regulator.
• The Production-Linked Incentive scheme for drones and drone components was notified on 30 September 2021 with a corpus of Rs 120 crore over three years.
• iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence) was launched in 2018 under the Ministry of Defence; it funds Services-startup partnerships.
• The Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme (2020) has a corpus of Rs 400 crore for eight domain-specific test centres.
• Pokhran-I (“Smiling Buddha”) was tested on 18 May 1974; Pokhran-II (“Operation Shakti”) on 11 to 13 May 1998.
• The Positive Indigenisation Lists, five for defence platforms and five for DPSU items, cover UAS, CUAS, sensors and electronic warfare.
• The IAF’s Counter-UAS approach combines soft-kill (jamming, spoofing, cyber) with hard-kill (kinetic and directed-energy).
• India is a member of the Wassenaar Arrangement (2017), which governs export controls on dual-use items including UAS.

Prelims, the traps:

• The Drone Rules, 2021 apply to civil UAS; military drones and Counter-UAS systems are outside the DGCA remit and are governed by MoD procedures.
• The PLI corpus for drones is Rs 120 crore, spread over three financial years, not annual.
• iDEX is administered by the Defence Innovation Organisation, a Section 8 company; it is not a departmental scheme.
• Pokhran is in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan, not in Bikaner or Jodhpur; both Pokhran-I and Pokhran-II were conducted at the same site.
• Wassenaar Arrangement is voluntary and non-binding; it is not a treaty.

Mains, arguments and keywords:

• Drone versus counter-drone as a speed-of-iteration contest; policy relevance of continuous evaluation.
• Indigenisation stack: Positive Indigenisation Lists, Drone Rules 2021, PLI drones, iDEX, Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme.
• Spectrum management and electronic warfare as the operational core of CUAS.
• Swarming tactics and manned-unmanned teaming as the next capability layer.
• Keywords: UAS, CUAS, PLI drones, iDEX, Wassenaar, Positive Indigenisation List, spectrum dominance, manned-unmanned teaming.

Interview, be ready for:

• “Is India well-placed to indigenise Counter-UAS?” On the shooter side yes; on the spectrum sensing and electronic-warfare side the ecosystem is thinner and depends on continuous update. Scheduled evaluations of the Dronathon type are the vehicle through which the Services keep an updated map of what industry has ready.
• “How does Dronathon differ from an arms fair?” An arms fair sells; Dronathon is a Services evaluation at a live range where platforms fly, jammers jam, and the outcome informs the next tranche of the Positive Indigenisation List.
• “What is the relevance of Wassenaar for India’s drone exports?” Membership legitimises India’s export-control regime; the DGFT’s General Authorisation for Export routes low-risk dual-use items through a lighter licence, which is what a drone start-up needs to sell abroad.

Sources: PIB, Ministry of Defence, DGCA, Directorate General of Foreign Trade

Source: Dronathon-2026 Opens at Pokhran Firing Range, Indian Air Force Showcase of Indigenous Drone and Counter-Drone Technologies — Ujiyari.com | Free UPSC & State PCS Current Affairs