Indian Navy, Drone Federation join hands to promote indigenous drone technology
Oct 26, 2022
New Delhi [India], October 26 : The Technology Development and Acceleration Cell of the Naval Innovation Indigenisation Organisation (NIIO) under the Indian Navy and Drone Federation of India have joined hands to collaboratively work towards promoting indigenous development, manufacturing and testing of a drone, counter-drone, and associated technologies for the Navy.
As a part of this collaboration, the Navy and the drone industry body will increase the Navy-industry-academia synergy, and source technology development challenges towards component indigenisation, an official statement said on Wednesday.
"A special maritime drone testing site shall also be earmarked for the Indian drone industry to facilitate faster development and testing of drones, especially in maritime environments thus enabling development for a host of applications," the statement added.
Additionally, programs on sensitisation and skill development shall be undertaken as part of this understanding.
"TDAC has been working towards accelerating the development of indigenous technologies to be utilised by the Indian Navy. Our collaboration with the Drone Federation of India will help us in developing a deeper industry connection as well as help us create a stronger roadmap for induction of drone platforms in the Indian Navy in a time-bound manner," said Cmde A P Golaya, VSM, OiC TDAC, Indian Navy.
The Drone Federation of India is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led body that promotes the drone industry by creating business opportunities, developing a robust skilling infrastructure, developing standards, and promoting R&D efforts.
"It is a proud moment for the Indian drone industry to have established a partnership with the Indian Navy to build and test superior drone platforms," said Smit Shah, President, the Drone Federation of India in the statement.
Shah added that the maritime testing site being developed under this initiative will accelerate the development of versatile and reliable drone platforms for advanced maritime use cases like maritime patrol, drone landings on moving ships, ship-to-ship deliveries, and ship-to-shore deliveries.
