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By:

Commodore S.L. Deshmukh

31 October 2024 at 8:30:19 am

The Beam That Blinds the Drone

As cheap drones reshape the battlefield, India’s T-SHUL BEAM points to a future in which electronic warfare may matter as much as firepower The drone has definitively become the weapon of choice for the modern battlefield. Cheap, expendable and increasingly autonomous, unmanned aerial vehicles can now threaten troops, armour, airfields and critical infrastructure without requiring the attacker to risk a pilot. Their proliferation has created a corresponding demand for counter-drone systems...

The Beam That Blinds the Drone

As cheap drones reshape the battlefield, India’s T-SHUL BEAM points to a future in which electronic warfare may matter as much as firepower The drone has definitively become the weapon of choice for the modern battlefield. Cheap, expendable and increasingly autonomous, unmanned aerial vehicles can now threaten troops, armour, airfields and critical infrastructure without requiring the attacker to risk a pilot. Their proliferation has created a corresponding demand for counter-drone systems that can respond quickly and at a cost proportionate to the threat. This is where beam-based anti-drone technology enters the picture. Broadly, such systems fall into two categories. Hard-kill systems use concentrated laser energy to physically damage or destroy a drone. Soft-kill systems, by contrast, use radio-frequency or electromagnetic energy to disrupt the electronic links that allow a drone to communicate, navigate and transmit information. Sophisticated Weaponry Hard-kill laser systems focus an intense beam of light on a vulnerable part of an incoming UAV - its carbon-fibre structure, control surfaces, battery or other critical components. The concentrated energy rapidly heats the target, potentially burning through its structure or disabling optical sensors and bringing the aircraft down. India’s DRDO has demonstrated a 30kW laser system, while Israel’s Rafael has developed the Lite Beam system. Soft-kill systems take a different route. Rather than physically destroying the aircraft, they interfere with the electronic architecture that keeps it airborne. Directional radio-frequency energy can disrupt command-and-control links, video feeds, telemetry and satellite-navigation signals such as GPS or other GNSS services. Depending on the drone and the nature of the disruption, the aircraft may be forced to land, return to its launch point or lose control. It is in this category that the T-SHUL BEAM system developed by Indian defence company IG Defence deserves attention. T-SHUL BEAM is a man-portable, directional counter-drone system designed for tactical deployment. Its multi-band radio-frequency architecture is intended to target several of the links on which unmanned aerial systems depend, including command-and-control, telemetry, video transmission and GNSS navigation. Its directional configuration allows an operator to concentrate electronic countermeasures on a particular aerial target rather than indiscriminately radiating energy across a large area. That matters on a battlefield where the warning time against a small UAV or first-person-view drone may be measured in seconds. The appeal of such a system is therefore not simply that it can counter a drone. It is that it can potentially bring counter-drone capability closer to the soldier and to the tactical edge. Large counter-UAS installations have their place, particularly around fixed and high-value assets. But forward units require systems that can move with them, be deployed rapidly and operate against small, low-cost unmanned platforms without imposing the logistical burden associated with conventional weapons. The T-SHUL BEAM’s significance also lies in its proposed integration with an artificial-intelligence-enabled battle-management architecture. IG Drones, the original equipment manufacturer, has stated that T-SHUL BEAM has been integrated with GRID, its indigenous AI-powered platform. The GRID architecture is intended to bring sensors, intelligence systems, unmanned platforms and command elements into a common operational framework. The attraction of such integration is obvious. Countering drones is increasingly less about a single weapon and more about the speed of the kill chain: detecting a threat, identifying it, deciding what response is appropriate and directing that response before the target disappears. An AI-enabled command architecture can potentially improve situational awareness, facilitate real-time threat detection and coordinate different systems operating simultaneously. This is particularly relevant as drone warfare evolves from isolated attacks towards increasingly complex and potentially swarming operations. A battlefield crowded with drones cannot be managed effectively if every sensor and weapon operates as a separate island. The advantage will increasingly belong to forces capable of turning disparate streams of information into a coherent picture and responding at machine speed. The T-SHUL BEAM’s reported demonstration at Pokhran represents another step in India’s attempt to build a domestic ecosystem spanning drones, counter-drones, artificial intelligence and electronic warfare. Counter-drone warfare is likely to be a recurring requirement rather than a niche capability. Importing every component of such an ecosystem would leave India vulnerable to supply-chain disruptions, technology restrictions and foreign-exchange pressures. Indigenous development, even when undertaken by relatively small private-sector companies, can broaden the country’s technological base and give the armed forces greater freedom to adapt systems to their operational requirements. Economics of the Contest Yet the real measure of any counter-drone system will ultimately be operational rather than promotional. Electronic warfare is inherently a contest between countermeasure and counter-countermeasure. Drone designers can alter frequencies, communications protocols, navigation methods and levels of autonomy. A system that is effective against one generation of drones may require modification against the next. The battlefield, in other words, will remain a technological arms race. The economics of the contest nevertheless favour directed-energy and electronic-warfare solutions. A conventional interceptor expends a missile or projectile against each target. A beam-based system can, subject to its power supply, engagement envelope and other operational constraints, engage targets without expending conventional ammunition. The marginal cost of an interception can consequently be dramatically lower. The beam also travels at effectively the speed of light, removing the flight time associated with kinetic interceptors. In densely populated areas or around sensitive infrastructure, bringing down a drone with a projectile can create its own hazards. Electronic disruption, when properly controlled, offers the possibility of neutralising the threat without sending an interceptor crashing back to earth. These advantages should not obscure the limitations. Soft-kill systems depend on the vulnerabilities of the target’s electronic architecture and may be less effective against increasingly autonomous drones that require fewer external communications. Weather, range, power availability, frequency management and the sophistication of an adversary's electronic countermeasures can all affect performance. No single technology is likely to provide a complete answer. The future of counter-drone warfare will therefore belong not to the beam alone but to layered defence combining. The emergence of systems such as T-SHUL BEAM suggests that India is beginning to build the technological pieces of that architecture at home. (The writer is a retired naval aviation officer and a defence and geopolitical analyst. Views personal.)

Congress’s western wall crumbles

Writer: Rajendra Pandharpure
Rajendra Pandharpure
Apr 21, 2025
3 min read

Once a symbol of rural Congress strength, Thopate’s move to the BJP leaves the party adrift in Western Maharashtra.


Pune: The Congress party’s slow erosion in Maharashtra gathered speed last week when Sangram Thopate, a former MLA from Bhor in Pune district, took decisive steps toward joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Thopate is expected to join the BJP on Tuesday. For a generation, the Thopates - Sangram and his father Anantrao - had been linchpins of Congress’s rural network, stitching together a web of cooperatives, educational institutions and loyal cadres. Their departure marks not just a local loss but a symbolic retreat of Congress influence across western Maharashtra, a region once considered its fortress.


The blow is not merely psychological. The Congress’s footprint in Pune district has been shrinking for years, culminating in a complete rout in the recent Assembly elections. Not a single Congress MLA was elected across Pune city and district in the Assembly polls last year. Thopate himself, a three-time MLA (2009, 2014, and 2019) bit the dust in 2024 after a rebellion by Kiran Dagde, a former BJP corporator, which split the Congress vote and gifted the seat to Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Ravindra Dhangekar, another Congress hopeful, was trounced in the Lok Sabha election by over 150,000 votes before defecting to Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena. The exit of Sangram Thopate merely seals an unfolding collapse.


Leaderless party

In its western heartland, Congress now finds itself leaderless and listless. After the Assembly debacle, the party high command had removed state chief Nana Patole, replacing him with Harshvardhan Sapkal, a mild-mannered former MLA little known even within party circles. In a state where political charisma and mass appeal are essential, Sapkal’s quiet religiosity offers scant comfort. Meanwhile, the few remaining figures - Vishal Patil in Sangli, Vishwajeet Kadam in Palus Kadegaon and Satej Patil in Kolhapur - provide little hope. Vishal Patil’s loyalty is suspect while Satej Patil’s influence rarely strays beyond Kolhapur’s borders. Kadam, once seen as a rising star, has failed to catch fire even after a Lok Sabha bid in Pune city a decade ago.


In this grim landscape, Thopate’s defection is more than another desertion. It underscores a structural decay that Congress seems unable to arrest. Thopate was not merely a Congress loyalist but part of its historic anti-Pawar axis in Pune district. His father, Anantrao Thopate, a former minister and once a chief ministerial hopeful, led the faction opposing Sharad Pawar’s dominance in the region. In the 1999 Assembly election, Sonia Gandhi herself campaigned in Bhor to boost Anantrao’s candidacy. Yet even then, Pawar’s subterranean political maneuvers torpedoed Thopate’s ambitions.


Pawar’s olive branch

Ironically, political enmity between the Pawar and Thopate families finally thawed during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Facing an existential threat in Baramati, Sharad Pawar personally visited the aging Anantrao Thopate to secure his support for daughter Supriya Sule’s campaign. Old rivalries were buried, but too late to resurrect Congress’s fortunes.


The Thopate family’s clout rested not just on electoral wins but also on their mastery of the cooperative sector - a vital source of rural patronage. Their Rajgad Cooperative Sugar Factory was once a powerhouse but slipped into financial distress between 2014 and 2019. In a telling twist, it was then-Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP who reportedly helped rescue it. That act of quiet generosity perhaps sowed the seeds of Thopate’s eventual migration to the saffron fold.


Sour relationship

Congress’s relationship with Sangram Thopate had frayed long before. In January 2020, when he was denied the post of district party president, his supporters stormed the Congress Bhavan in Pune and vandalized it – an act that hardened mutual resentments. Despite his loyalty and stature, Thopate was consistently passed over for ministerial positions. At best, he was floated as a possible Speaker of the Assembly, a consolation prize that he could not even claim.


Now, with his adhesion to the BJP, Chief Minister Fadnavis stands to gain a seasoned lieutenant in Pune district. Thopate’s entry into the BJP not only boosts the party’s credibility among rural voters but also strengthens its cooperative network - a key plank for political mobilisation in Maharashtra. Meanwhile, for the Congress, the desertion leaves an aching void in an area where it once held unassailable sway.


It also highlights the deeper malaise afflicting the party nationwide: an aging leadership disconnected from its grassroots, slow to reward loyalty and blind to the new dynamics of regional politics. In Maharashtra’s fluid political market, where alliances shift like monsoon winds, Congress remains rigid and adrift - hemmed in by nostalgia and weakened by inertia.


The Thopates’ departure does not merely close a chapter. It spells the end of Congress’s relevance in a region that once crowned its leaders.

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