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The Indian Air Force began its first Dronathon at the Pokhran Field Firing Range in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, on 14 September 2026; the event runs to 16 September.
It was inaugurated by Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, Vice Chief of the Air Staff, with Ministry of Defence officials and representatives of the Army and the Border Security Force present.
More than 20 defence firms, start-ups, MSMEs and defence PSUs are testing unmanned aircraft systems in live operating conditions rather than on a display stand.
The Vice Chief released the IAF's Unmanned and Autonomous Systems Roadmap, which tells industry what capabilities the Air Force wants.
The opening day featured a live demonstration of Vayu UTtaM, an indigenous multi-mode unmanned traffic management system that detected and tracked both military and civil drones.
Host of Dronathon-2026, testing whether unmanned systems deliver results in contested and cluttered conditions rather than only in a demonstration, and whether platforms adapt as operational requirements and threats change
Indigenous multi-mode unmanned traffic management system demonstrated on day one. It detected and tracked both military and civil unmanned aircraft, which is what allows drone traffic to be deconflicted in crowded airspace and rogue or unauthorised drones to be identified. Its uses extend beyond the military to civil aviation, airspace safety, critical infrastructure protection and public safety.
The Pokhran Field Firing Range lies in Jaisalmer district in the Thar Desert of western Rajasthan, close enough to the western border for live-fire and desert-condition trials. It is the country's best-known test range: India's first nuclear test, Smiling Buddha, was conducted there in 1974, and the Pokhran-II series, Operation Shakti, followed in 1998. The IAF also uses the range for its firepower demonstrations.
Notified by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in August 2021 in place of the UAS Rules, 2021. They cut the number of approvals and fees and put drone operations on the Digital Sky platform with an interactive airspace map dividing Indian airspace into green, yellow and red zones - the framework any traffic-management system such as Vayu UTtaM has to work within.
General Awareness > Defence exercises, equipment and appointments
GS Paper III > Security > Defence technology, indigenisation and emerging threats
Unmanned Aircraft System - the drone together with its ground control station, communication link and payload; the term covers the whole system, not just the airframe.
Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems: the detection, tracking, jamming or physical neutralisation of hostile drones.
Unmanned Traffic Management, the system that tracks and deconflicts drone traffic in shared airspace - the drone equivalent of air traffic control. Vayu UTtaM is India's indigenous multi-mode version.