The year 2025 made one thing clear, UAVs are transforming both national security and enterprise operations domestically as well as globally. From Operation Sindoor to everyday missions led by security forces, industries and state agencies, drones consistently delivered reliable intelligence where it mattered most. Also, after Op Sindoor, Electronic Warfare resilience has become a baseline requirement for the Indian forces operating in border areas. This has been evident with the increased procurement activities, budget allocations and order in flows. Driven by geopolitical exigencies, this year, the UAV demand surged sharply in the Indian defence sector, after a muted 2024.
Irrespective of the market conditions, we have been investing in indigenization and technology development, in areas we believe are the inevitable directions for the country’s strategic autonomy and this technology. This has paid off well since the demand has started to rebound in the first quarter of 2025 through Emergency Procurement’s cycle 5 (EP5) and now EP6. Our long-term domestic and global partnerships helped us expand our impact across defence, governance and industry at large. Achieving ‘Fit For Indian Military Use’ certification for SWITCH and NATO codification for our SWITCH and Q6 platforms were important milestones, validating our standing as a credible player in cutting-edge UAV technology. Successful trials and Defence orders for Zolt have once again proved how important it is to persistently invest in developing tech that delivers next generation capability to customers.
The ecosystem around us strengthened as well this year. Government and institutional support accelerated deployments. Announcement of INR 1 Lakh crore RDI fund signalled that the government is serious about strengthening R&D in the country and developing cutting-edge technologies. Rationalisation and clarification on GST rates further help consolidate the progress that the industry has made and will make Indian products more competitive. Increased focus on cybersecurity and country of origin checks becoming a standard part of the army’s procurement requirements has given indigenous players further confidence that their efforts in developing indigenous and secure tech will be recognised and appreciated by customers.
Looking back at our journey, we have created sufficient evidence time and again that exemplify that we are “built different”. We are able to pre-empt and create capabilities that customers are willing to adopt, and now the adoption will also happen at scale. Our efforts to drive market penetration of this technology, since we began, have finally seen two inflection points in the last 5 years, beginning with COVID-19 and Galwan, and now Pahalgam Terror attacks and subsequently Op Sindoor, driving the industry robustly towards its exponential growth phase. With our deep vertical integration, validated secure supply chain and indigenous core capabilities, for this next phase of growth, we are well poised and evolving rapidly to capitalize on the upcoming opportunities.
As we enter 2026, the industry is entering a new phase where performance, reliability, resilience and autonomy will become baseline expectations. Leveraging the existing and new AI capabilities is going to become crucial as we go forward in the next few years because there is a need in the market for a lot more autonomous operations on drones in the future. And that is particularly required because with all the electronic warfare and counter drone systems that are going to be more prevalent on the ground today, the need for drones to do missions while being completely radio silent is going to go up”.
Mr Ankit Mehta is CEO & Co-Founder of ideaForge Technology Ltd. ideaForge is a pioneer and market leader in the Indian unmanned aircraft systems (“UAS”) market. It was 3rd globally in the dual-use category (civil and defense) drone manufacturers as per the report published by Drone Industry Insights in December 2024.
