Taming the Skies: Managing the Unmanned Airspace and Countering Rogue Drones

High Tech GeopoliticsAdvanced Military Technologies
Written By Arindam Goswami

Executive Summary

  • The rapidly evolving Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) or drone ecosystem presents novel opportunities and threats.

  • Frameworks regulating UAS operations in Very Low-Level (VLL) airspace can be found in the Drone Rules 2021 and the National Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management Policy Framework.

  • A networked Counter-UAS (C-UAS) grid, concurrent with the Unmanned Traffic Management System (UTMS), is necessary to plug the gaps in the current air defence coverage, which is oriented towards aerial threats in the higher airspace.

  • The key is to optimise regulatory provisions to distinguish compliant users from non-compliant ones, and then employ the C-UAS grid to neutralise the rogue drone threat.

Authors

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Col Vikrant S Shinde
Col Vikrant S Shinde

Col Vikrant S Shinde is a serving officer in the Indian Army. He was commissioned in 2000 in the Infantry. He is a graduate of Defence Services Staff College and Army War College. Currently, he is associated with The Takshashila Institution as a Research Fellow in the Defence Fellowship Programme.

Arindam Goswami
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