Maharashtra CM Fadnavis inaugurates Solar Industries' drone-making facility in Nagpur

Nagpur (Maharashtra) [India], January 11 : In a big boost to Indigenous manufacturing of drones, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), loitering munitions, and counter-drone systems, a state-of-the-art composite manufacturing facility was inaugurated at Economics Explosives Ltd (EEL), Solar Industries Nagpur, by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday.
In the emerging technology scenario, Drones and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) are going to play a vital role in both civil as well as military applications. Many Indian industries and start-ups have entered drone-related technologies and systems mostly focussed on surveillance and logistics applications.
The use of drones and UAVs for combat applications needs special expertise and facilities which most industries in our country do not have. Solar Industries have taken the initiative towards the weaponization of drones, developing variants of Loiter Munitions (LM), Counter Drone Systems, Drone-based Mine Detection and Disposal Systems etc.
Taking these developments further, recently Solar has taken the initiative to develop a MALE class of UAVs with surveillance and attack capabilities.
In a major breakthrough in bringing 'Atma-nirbharta' in ammunition and defence systems, the first indigenous Loiter Munition, 'Nagastra - 1', developed by Solar Industries, Nagpur, has been inducted in the Infantry of the Indian Army.
Against the contract from the Indian Army, Economics Explosives Ltd (EEL), a subsidiary of Solar Group, has manufactured and supplied 480 Loiter Munitions under Emergency Purchase.
Nagastra -1, in a "kamikaze mode", can neutralize any hostile threat with a GPS-enabled precision strike with an accuracy of 2m. In case of target is not detected or if the mission is aborted, the loiter munition can be called back and make a soft landing with a parachute recovery mechanism enabling it to be reused multiple times.
Abort, recover and reuse features of this Loiter Munition make this system superior to similar classes of systems developed by advanced countries. Successful development and delivery of Nagastra-1, Loiter Munition, is the first success and higher variants of Nagastra-2 and Nagastra-3, with far superior performance parameters and warhead carrying capabilities, are in the advanced stage of development as Make-2 projects.
Drone technology has proved to be a Force Multiplier in military operations as evidenced by its application in various recent conflicts across the World especially Armenia - Azerbaijan, Syria, Syria, Strike on Oilfields in Saudi Arabia, and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine and Isreal Gaza conflict. Even in our context, the recent incidents along the borders have seen a noticeable increase in drone-related incidents along the Northern Borders in the recent past.
Satyanarayan Nuwal has the vision of developing Nagpur as the hub centre for the development and manufacturing of weaponized drones and enabling technologies.
The manufacturing facilities have been established at EEL, Nagpur to produce up to 1000 Loiter Munitions per year. Facilities have been established to support performance testing and environmental qualification of in-house developed Loiter Munition. For testing of the MALE class of UAVs, a state-of-the-art runway, 1.25 km long and 40 m wide, is in the final stage of completion.
Solar has earmarked an investment of INR 10,000 cr over the next 10 years for augmenting the existing defence capabilities. These developments will go a long way to boost indigenous capabilities of using drones / UAVs as war machinery.