BSF tries to track downed drones' origins

New Delhi: Determined to counter increased drone activity from across the western border, which saw 250 drone flights and shooting down of 16 drones by its personnel this year, BSF has begun forensic analysis of the recovered drones to trace their flight path with time-stamps, originating and landing points with exact GPS coordinates, messages exchanged between traffickers on either side of the border, while also working with technical experts to develop indigenous, foolproof anti-drone solutions.
BSF director general Pankaj Kumar Singh on Wednesday said the force has received Rs 30 crore from the ministry of home affairs this year to procure state-of-the-art equipment for stepping up surveillance at the western frontier, mostly used for smuggling in weapons and drugs from Pakistan, as well as the eastern frontier. These funds will be used to procure and deploy 5,500 surveillance cameras.
Listing drones as a "major challenge" to border security, Singh, while addressing the annual BSF press conference here ahead of its Raising Day, admitted that the force currently does not have a foolproof anti-drone system. "However, we will find solutions in the times to come and we are increasingly detecting and killing drones," he said. BSF recently started a forensic laboratory where it is analysing chips from the recovered drones, which Singh said store data just like any other computational device or mobile phone.
The BSF, Singh said, has also developed in-house "low-cost technology solutions" that will combine surveillance data from multiple devices and transmit it to the units at the border fence or at the battalion level. Similar tools provided by foreign vendors were found very costly.