26OCT

India clears buys of kamikaze drones

2 min read

15:07UTC

India's Defence Acquisition Council approved about Rs 2.12 lakh crore of proposals on 26 October, including long-range kamikaze drones and counter-drone systems to protect tanks.

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Key takeaway

India's arms council cleared kamikaze drones and tank counter-drone systems, mostly for Indian industry.

India's Defence Acquisition Council, chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, approved proposals worth about Rs 2.12 lakh crore (Rs 2.12 trillion, about $22bn) for the three services on 26 October⁠¹. The council is the Indian defence ministry's top body for approving arms purchases. The Indian Army's share includes platform-based counter-drone systems to protect tanks, long-range kamikaze drones, surveillance drones and linked surveillance-and-strike systems⁠².

The approval is an Acceptance of Necessity, the first formal step in Indian defence buying: it starts procurement but places no contract. About 82 per cent of the value is to go to Indian industry, by the ministry's account⁠³, so foreign makers can compete for at most the rest. Tank protection against drones is a shared concern: South Korea approved fitting drone jammers to its K2 tank fleet in August.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

India's Defence Acquisition Council, led by the defence minister, decides which weapons the armed forces may start buying. On 26 October it gave first approval to a large set of purchases. For the Army, these include kamikaze drones that fly long distances and crash into targets, and systems mounted on tanks to shoot down or jam drones. Approval is only the first step. Companies still have to bid, pass trials and agree a price before any contract is signed.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

India banned imports of foreign-made drones in February 2022 while leaving components open, to push assembly into Indian factories. That policy produced many Indian drone assemblers whose motors, batteries and electronics are often imported.

Tank-mounted counter-drone systems reflect what armoured forces have learned in Ukraine, where cheap drones destroy tanks from above. The Army is asking for protection that travels with the vehicle rather than fixed sites.

What could happen next?

Opportunity
Indian drone makers gain a large potential order pipeline for kamikaze and counter-drone systems.
Medium term · Reported
Risk
Imported components may make the 82 per cent domestic target hard to meet in practice.
Medium term · Assessed
Consequence
Foreign drone firms will need Indian partners to compete for most of the value.
Medium term · Assessed

Source Landscape

This story draws on mixed-leaning sources from United Kingdom

United Kingdom

Primary parallel: India issued a tender for 126 medium multi-role fighters in 2007 and scrapped the competition in 2015 in favour of a government-to-government purchase of 36 Rafale jets. A first approval in India can run for years and still end in a different purchase.

Counter-parallel: After the Galwan Valley clash with China in June 2020, India gave its services emergency purchasing powers, and drones were among the items bought. When a threat is immediate, India has shown it can buy within months by stepping outside the normal process.

Immediate: no per-item values were published, so the drone share of the Rs 2.12 lakh crore cannot be measured. Indian listed defence and drone firms gain a pipeline, but no orders yet.

Structural: an 82 per cent domestic share pushes foreign drone makers into licensing deals or joint ventures with Indian partners. Firms that rely on imported Chinese parts face a new cost and delay risk under China's licence rules from November.

Consensus view: India's defence ministry says about 82 per cent of the approved value will go to Indian industry, and The Week lists kamikaze drones alongside helicopters and missile defences. New Delhi is using its largest approval rounds to build a domestic drone and counter-drone base.

Counter-view: SSBCrack, relaying the ministry, stresses that an Acceptance of Necessity is in-principle approval with no per-item values or delivery dates. No timeline for contracts has been published.

Key tension: Whether Indian drones can meet the 82 per cent domestic share when many of their motors and electronics come from abroad.

Sources:SSBCrack·The Week

Mentions:South Korea →Defence Acquisition Council →Rajnath Singh →Indian Army →India →China →New Delhi →

First Reported In

Update #19 · China puts drone-part exports under licence

SSBCrack· 26 Oct 2026

Read original →

Different Perspectives

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EDGE Group

The Emirati group said on 9 October it will supply glide bombs and guidance kits for the Royal Moroccan Air Force's armed drones. A separate memorandum explores making small arms and aero engines in Morocco.

Rajnath Singh

India's Defence Acquisition Council, which he chairs, approved about Rs 2.12 lakh crore of proposals on 26 October, including kamikaze drones and tank-mounted counter-drone systems. About 82 per cent of the value is to go to Indian industry, by the ministry's account.

Kongsberg

The Norwegian group said on 13 October it will invest more than 200m zlotys in a Pomeranian plant to build and maintain SAN counter-drone systems. It expects series output to begin in the first half of 2028.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.