Pakistan hybrid warfare threat: BSF rushes to order anti-drone tech

NEW DELHI: Faced with increasing intrusions of drugs and weapons-carrying drones along the international border in Punjab and Rajasthan and the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu, the Union Home Ministry has approved a BSF move to acquire and use a number of anti-drone guns and jammers.This would make the BSF the first Indian paramilitary force to procure and put to operational use anti-drone systems and guns on the western and northern sectors of the borders.

Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) sources said that the BSF has also been given the nod to procure an array of electronic and digital systems to “detect the presence of electronic devices” that were recently found to have been used by the Pakistan ISI in border guarding force’s ‘area of responsibility’ in Amritsar.

Besides, the BSF is also collaborating with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to partner with IIT-Bombay’s National Centre of Excellence in Technology for Internal Security to develop a canine mounted video surveillance system that will be able to access difficult and risky “spaces” such as tunnels and buildings in control of intruders.

An MHA source said that the security forces have initiated a response to the “hybrid warfare” launched by the Pakistan army, ISI and Rangers who have also taken to using “flying suites” aimed at pin-point targeting of Indian installations.But the “immediate requirement”, according to MHA sources, was for anti-drone technologies for which the BSF has shortlisted for acquiring electronic jammers and guns with two start-ups, Pune-based Gurutvaa Systems and Chennai-based Big Bang Boom Solutions, respectively.

While MHA sources did not disclose the number of UAV-disabling jammers and guns the BSF has ordered, they said that the hand-held gadgets went through field trials in Jammu and Punjab in November 2021, before the two companies were shortlisted for supplying the two “vital”counter-drone weapons.