In five weeks, 47 personnel will graduate from a new Border Security Force school in Madhya Pradesh as “drone commandos.” The batch is the first to complete training at the Drone Warfare School established at the BSF’s Tekanpur training institute, part of a broader effort to mainstream unmanned systems following Operation Sindoor. The school, opened earlier this month, is instructing recruits in drone piloting, surveillance and strike operations, and techniques to counter hostile unmanned aerial vehicles. A subsequent course will train senior officers in drone warfare strategy.
“After Operation Sindoor and in the context of the Russia‑Ukraine war, we realized battles are no longer fought just with tanks and guns but with aerial vehicles,” said Shamsher Singh, ADG of the BSF Academy. “Until now our troops patrolled with LMGs and rifles. Now the drone must become a personal weapon. Our soldiers can dismantle and reassemble an INSAS in 15 seconds, we want them to reach the same level of proficiency with drones: able to repair, fly and conduct both defensive and offensive operations.”
The Drone Warfare School offers two core programs, Drone Commandos for personnel and Drone Warriors for officers, and is organised into three wings: Flying & Piloting, Tactics (covering defensive and offensive operations), and Research & Development.
Shamsher Singh said the drone commandos are being trained to treat drones as personal weapons, to carry and operate them for surveillance and patrols, to disable hostile UAVs, and, if necessary, to deliver explosive payloads.
Brigadier Rupinder Singh, the school’s head of training, said the syllabus includes flying, technical and tactical modules. BSF Academy IG Umed Singh added that the school is also training instructors who will be deployed to field units to teach drone operations and technology.
“Orientation on drones has already been made compulsory in all training courses for personnel and officers at the Academy,” Umed Singh said. The Drone Warfare School is one of several measures the BSF is taking as it prepares for a wide‑scale induction of unmanned systems.
The school is partnering with IIT Delhi and IIT Kanpur to develop indigenous drones, refitting platforms to carry weapons and bombs and fitting them with high‑resolution cameras for surveillance.
To build those capabilities the BSF has set up a Drone Technology Lab at the Rustam Ji Institute of Technology in Tekanpur. Officials say the lab is analysing data and forensic evidence from UAVs recovered after being shot down along the India–Pakistan border.
The BSF’s Police Technology Innovation Centre is also pursuing offensive drone projects. “We are working on it. We need faster drones for that,” a senior BSF officer said, adding the force is exploring the possibility of mounting guns on high‑speed platforms and is in discussions with other institutions for development. The officer noted the existence of drones capable of conducting surveillance over 500 km in a single sortie and even imaging barbed‑wire fences, capabilities that could bolster border patrolling and defence. He also said some platforms can carry kamikaze drones or haul payloads of up to 200 kg.
The force has already partnered with IIT Kanpur to forensically analyse captured UAVs and is negotiating with IIT Delhi to develop technologies such as near‑silent and weaponised drones. “We are working on a range of projects including stealth, AI and weaponised drones,” the officer added.
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