By Lt Col Narendra Tripathi (r)
The advent of swarm intelligence and collaborative unmanned drone systems has revolutionized maritime surveillance, offering unparalleled capabilities in threat detection, operational efficiency, and strategic decision-making. For the Indian Navy, integrating swarm technology into its operational framework holds immense potential to bolster maritime domain awareness, enhance security, and establish technological superiority in the complex and dynamic maritime environment.
Swarm Intelligence: The Concept
Swarm intelligence is inspired by natural systems such as flocks of birds or schools of fish, where collective behaviour enables efficient navigation, communication, and task execution. When applied to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), swarm intelligence allows multiple drones to operate as a cohesive unit, communicating and collaborating autonomously to complete complex missions. Each drone in the swarm acts as an intelligent node, enabling dynamic task allocation, adaptive coordination, and distributed problem-solving.
Govt of India Initiatives
Many initiatives like the iDEX Defence India Startup Challenge (DISC), the Technology Development Fund (TDF) and Aatmanirbhar Defence India Tech Initiative (ADITI) have been launched by India’s Ministry of Defence, which have spearheaded several cutting-edge challenges to advance swarm drone technologies, reinforcing the nation’s defence capabilities. These initiatives encourage partnerships with Indian startups, MSMEs, and academia to innovate in areas like autonomous drone swarms for battlefield applications, electronic warfare systems, and combat reconnaissance. Together, these programs underline India’s commitment to fostering indigenous technologies that address both offensive and defensive operational requirements, positioning the country at the forefront of swarm drone innovation.
Among these, the Autonomous Underwater Swarm Drones challenge aims to develop underwater drone swarms for surveillance, reconnaissance, and mine countermeasures, enhancing maritime security. The ALFA-S (Air Launched Flexible Asset – Swarm Drones) project focuses on air-launched swarm drones deployable from various aerial platforms, offering scalable and flexible offensive options. The Counter Swarm-Drone System challenge is designed to create multi-domain loitering aerial interceptors capable of detecting, neutralizing, and destroying hostile drone swarms. Another significant initiative, the Expendable Active Decoy (EAD) Swarm, seeks to build high-speed drones equipped with chaff dispensers and electronic warfare payloads, aimed at overwhelming enemy air defence systems and safeguarding friendly aircraft.
The Role of Swarm Drone Systems in Maritime Surveillance
Swarm drone technology can revolutionize maritime surveillance, offering transformative advantages for the Indian Navy. By operating autonomously and dispersing across predefined sectors, swarm of drones provides extensive area coverage while collaboratively relaying real-time data. Their distributed nature ensures mission survivability and redundancy, even if individual drones are compromised. Enabled by artificial intelligence (AI), these drones can analyze data autonomously, identify unusual patterns, and detect potential threats such as unauthorized vessels, hostile activities, or illegal maritime operations. Moreover, their lightweight and compact design reduces operational costs compared to traditional large UAV systems, making them both efficient and cost-effective. Swarm drones also enable seamless integration across multiple domains, working collaboratively with ground-based systems, surface ships, and aerial platforms to enhance comprehensive situational awareness.
Globally, swarm drones have been embraced by the armed forces for their unparalleled capabilities in surveillance, reconnaissance, and operational adaptability. For instance, the Perdix Micro-Drones, developed by the U.S. Department of Defence, excel in reconnaissance and communication missions, demonstrating their ability to adapt to environmental changes and coordinate autonomously. Similarly, Boeing’s Loyal Wingman, developed with the Royal Australian Air Force, combines swarming technology with manned aircraft to enhance situational awareness in contested environments. China’s drone swarms, including the Blowfish A2, leverage AI to conduct surveillance and area denial operations in urban and maritime terrains. Israel’s Harpy Swarm, while primarily a loitering munition system, has proven effective in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, particularly in electronic warfare scenarios. Russia’s Kamikaze Swarm Drones, developed by Kalashnikov and ZALA Aero, showcase the potential of AI-coordinated reconnaissance in high-risk zones. The U.S.’s ALTIUS-600, a tube-launched ISR drone, demonstrates modular adaptability and seamless integration with manned systems for multi-mission deployments.
India is also making significant strides in this domain, with its indigenous Swarm of Drones initiative focusing on ISR missions for coastal and border surveillance. This effort underscores India’s commitment to developing homegrown solutions for maritime domain awareness. Similarly, NATO’s OCEAN2020 Swarm integrates aerial, surface, and underwater drones, enabling enhanced maritime surveillance and domain awareness during joint operations. Turkey’s KARGU Swarm and Israel’s TIKAD Swarm further emphasize the tactical advantages of swarm drones, utilizing real-time analytics and high-resolution imaging to improve operational efficiency.
Swarm Drones: Transforming Naval Warfare and Surveillance
Swarm drones can transform naval operations with their unparalleled ability to patrol vast coastlines, monitor maritime zones, and detect threats such as smuggling and piracy. Their collaborative nature ensures operational continuity even if individual drones are compromised, while their scalability allows them to adapt to missions of varying complexity. Seamlessly integrated with existing naval systems, these drones provide real-time intelligence for enhanced situational awareness and effective decision-making. Their applications extend to detecting unauthorized crossings and suspicious activities during border monitoring, improving coastal surveillance by tracking ship movements and identifying illegal fishing or piracy hotspots, and conducting reconnaissance in dense urban maritime environments. On the battlefield, swarm drones boost the operational efficiency of naval units with real-time intelligence, and during disaster response scenarios, they excel at mapping affected areas, locating survivors, and delivering critical updates. This versatility and reliability make swarm drones indispensable for modern naval operations. The potential of swarm drones is further amplified by their ability to integrate with existing and emerging naval technologies. For example, the Indian Navy’s Coastal Surveillance Network (CSN), developed by DRDO and BEL, forms a robust foundation for integrating swarm drone systems. The CSN’s network of remote radar stations, advanced AI-powered sensors, and complementary systems like the Lanza-N 3D Air Surveillance Radar and the Revathi 3D Radar enable enhanced threat detection and operational efficiency. By incorporating swarm drones, the CSN could significantly improve its capabilities in real-time surveillance, targeted inspections, and anomaly detection. For instance, tethered drones can provide persistent aerial coverage of vulnerable coastal areas, while autonomous swarms can augment radar capabilities, performing dynamic reconnaissance of suspicious vessels or aircraft.
Swarm drone technology has evolved far beyond traditional surveillance roles, now extending into advanced combat applications. Equipped with AI capabilities, these drones can act as decoys to confuse enemy defence systems, execute coordinated strikes in contested environments, and dynamically adapt to mission objectives. Real-time decision-making and resource optimization, powered by AI algorithms, ensure that swarm drones remain versatile across scenarios—whether protecting naval fleets, supporting humanitarian operations, or responding to evolving maritime threats.
For the Indian Navy, swarm drones represent a cornerstone of future defence strategies. By prioritizing indigenous development, collaborating with startups and research institutions, and integrating these drones into existing surveillance architectures, the Navy is poised to enhance its ability to safeguard maritime domains. The transformative capabilities of swarm drones in wide-area coverage, real-time intelligence, and collaborative operations make them indispensable assets in ensuring operational superiority in an increasingly complex maritime environment.
Additionally, swarm drones equipped with high-end camera sensors and advanced computer vision can revolutionize naval surveillance. These drones detect specified objects in real time, leveraging AI to analyze video feeds and generate instant alerts for enhanced situational awareness. Automating surveillance over critical maritime and coastal areas improves operational precision and efficiency. Networked drone systems ensure comprehensive coverage, seamless information sharing, and actionable intelligence. Recent demonstrations at INS Valsura showcased the potential of these AI-driven swarm technologies to redefine naval surveillance and bolster maritime security, underlining their critical role in modern defence operations.
Integrated Drone-Based Surveillance Architecture
An integrated drone-based surveillance architecture can provide the backbone for leveraging swarm intelligence effectively. The system can comprise of:
- Drone Management System (DMS): The DMS integrates network and tethered drones, creating a centralized platform for real-time monitoring and control. The architecture includes:
- Drone Management Dashboard: Displays live telemetry, video feeds, and operational analytics.
- Integration Engine: Handles real-time image recognition, video processing, and data encryption.
- Core Applications: Tracks asset inventories, operational data, and readiness reports.
- Analytics Cloud: Offers advanced tools such as payload analysis, self-service reporting, and predictive analytics.
- Swarm Controller: Enables autonomous communication and task execution among drones, monitored by a smart command and control unit.
Security and Access Control: Ensures data integrity through role-based access and encryption mechanisms.
Integration with the Coastal Surveillance Network (CSN)
The Indian Navy’s Coastal Surveillance Network (CSN), developed by DRDO and BEL, provides a robust foundation for integrating swarm drone-based surveillance systems. The CSN comprises remote radar stations that operate continuously to detect small vessels, advanced AI-powered sensors that distinguish between natural and artificial objects to reduce false alarms, and complementary assets like the Lanza-N 3D Air Surveillance Radar for long-range aerial threat detection and the Revathi 3D Radar for reliable tracking of air and sea targets, even in electronic warfare scenarios. Integrating swarm drones with the CSN can significantly enhance maritime domain awareness by leveraging tethered drones for continuous aerial coverage of vulnerable coastal areas and deploying swarm drones to augment radar capabilities through targeted inspections and surveillance of suspicious vessels. Strategic and Tactical Applications of Swarm Drones.
Such systems are evolving and are being integrated in some form or the other.
The Indian Navy can leverage swarm drone technology across multiple levels of operations:
- Strategic Level:
- Swarm drones can monitor vast maritime zones like the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), tracking naval movements and securing sea lanes of communication.
- Digital twin simulations using swarm drones can evaluate naval strategies under simulated combat conditions.
- Tactical Level:
- Swarm drones deployed from naval platforms like frigates and destroyers can provide real-time intelligence during combat or anti-piracy missions.
- Swarms can coordinate with naval helicopters and unmanned underwater vehicles for integrated operations.
- Unit Level:
- Local unit commanders can deploy swarms for perimeter surveillance, emergency response, and asset protection.
- Tactical drones can provide localized intelligence and support small-scale operations.
Empowering Local Commanders
Local commanders can be empowered to procure and operate smaller swarm drone systems tailored to specific mission requirements, providing the flexibility to address localized challenges without relying on top-down directives. However, it is essential to assess unit-specific needs and operational conditions, including factors like saline environments, variable take-off and landing positions in offshore scenarios, communication requirements, and electronic warfare (EW) considerations. By incorporating swarm intelligence into existing drone technologies, their capabilities can be significantly enhanced, enabling collaborative decision-making, autonomous threat detection, and efficient mission execution.
Future Vision: A Multi-Layered Defence Network
The Indian Navy’s adoption of swarm drones for surveillance must be viewed as part of a broader multi-layered defence strategy. By combining ground-based systems, aerial platforms, and swarm intelligence, the Navy can create a “dome of safety” over India’s maritime territories. Key elements of this vision include:
- AI-Driven Decision Support: Use machine learning algorithms to process real-time data from drones for actionable insights and integrate them with existing radar/satellite data.
- Integrated Command Centres: Establish centralized hubs to monitor and control all surveillance assets, enabling rapid responses to emerging threats.
- Collaborative Platforms: Develop joint projects with other branches of the Armed Forces to share technologies and best practices.
Conclusion
Swarm intelligence and collaborative unmanned drone systems represent the future of maritime surveillance for the Indian Navy. By integrating these technologies into its operational framework, the Indian Navy can enhance its strategic capabilities, ensure maritime security, and project power across the Indian Ocean Region. Leveraging the Coastal Surveillance Network, advanced drone platforms, and AI-driven architectures, the Indian Navy is well-positioned to redefine the benchmarks of modern naval warfare. Empowering local commanders with tactical swarm systems will further ensure that these advancements translate into operational excellence at every level.
Lt Col Narendra Tripathi (r) is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur with research in Exoskeleton. He is also an SME and independent consultant in military technology.
