What is Nagastra-1, Army's new high-precision 'suicide drones'

The first indigenous Loitering Munition, Nagastra–1, developed by Solar Industries, Nagpur, has been delivered to the Indian Army. (Courtesy: ANI)

The Indian Army received first-of-its-kind man-portable suicide drones 'Nagastra-1' which are capable of carrying out precision strikes on enemy camps without endangering the lives of soldiers. The drones, ordered by the Army using its emergency procurement powers, will be used to meet urgent requirements along the China and Pakistan borders.

Developed by Nagpur-based Solar Industries, these drones can neutralise hostile threats in 'kamikaze mode' with GPS-enabled precision strikes, boasting an accuracy of up to 2 metres.

The Indian Army placed an order to Solar Industries' Economics Explosives Ltd (EEL) to supply 480 Nagastra 1 Loitering Munitions and has already received 120 of them after successful completion of pre-delivery inspections.

One of the key features which makes it stand apart from other such drones is that Nagastra is designed in a way that it can abort an attack when required.

The UAV is equipped with day-and-night surveillance cameras and carries a 1 kg high-explosive fragmenting warhead to neutralise soft-skin targets. Its unique features like abort, recover and reuse, facilitated by a parachute recovery mechanism, set it apart from similar systems globally.

The Nagastra's electric propulsion system provides a low acoustic signature to make it undetectable by the enemy at a height of more than 200 metres.

According to a report on The Economic Times, the Nagastra 1 has indigenous content of over 75 percent, reducing dependency on foreign sources. Similar systems are being used extensively in some of the ongoing conflicts including Ukraine-Russia war.

The man-portable fixed-wing electric UAV, weighing 9 kg, has an endurance of 30 minutes, a man-in-loop range of 15 km and an autonomous mode range of 30 km.

According to defence officials, Nagastra's electric propulsion system provides a low acoustic signature to make it undetectable by the enemy at a height of more than 200 metres.

In the past, the armed forces had procured such systems from foreign vendors under an earlier round of emergency procurements but at a significantly higher cost.