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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.)

Nasrapur’s Lost Child

Writer: Abhijit Joshi
Abhijit Joshi
May 8
4 min read

The rape and murder of a four-year-old girl has left Maharashtra grieving and demanding accountability from a system that failed to stop a known offender.

She was only four years old. She was spending her summer holidays at her grandmother’s house in Nasrapur, a quiet village in the Bhor area of Pune district. She liked playing outside. On the afternoon of May 1, 2026, a 65-year-old man from the same village walked up to her and said he would show her a calf. She smiled and followed him. She never came back. What happened next in a cattle shed nearby is too painful to describe in full. The man — identified by police as Bhimrao Prabhakar Kamble — sexually assaulted the little girl, killed her, and hid her body under a pile of cow dung.


Repeat Offender

CCTV footage from a camera outside a neighbour’s house recorded Kamble walking away with the child. By the time the child was found, it was too late. The doctors said she had already passed away. Kamble was found near a river in the village. He said he had done nothing. But the camera had told the truth. The police arrested him the same evening. He was sent to police custody by a Pune court. Here is something deeply troubling about this case. Bhimrao Kamble was not a first-time offender. He was accused of molestation in 1998. A court let him go. In 2015, he was accused again — this time of harming a young girl.


He was let go again. In 2019, a court acquitted him in a case involving his own niece. Each time he walked free, he came back to live in the same village. Nobody was keeping a close eye on him. No one warned the village. And the little girl’s family had no way of knowing that this man, their neighbour, had harmed children before. When the news spread across Nasrapur and then across Maharashtra, people were heartbroken — and furious.


Hundreds of villagers came out on the streets. They blocked the busy Pune-Satara Highway (also part of the Pune-Bengaluru National Highway) for hours through the night. On May 2, a complete shutdown (bandh) was called in Nasrapur. All shops and schools remained closed. The next day, a bandh was observed across the Bhor and Rajgad tehsils as well. Protestors carried signs and slogans demanding the death penalty for the accused. They wanted justice — and they wanted it fast. The little girl’s last rites were held late at night, after midnight, under police protection. The child’s father, a Hindu priest, recorded a video message that went around on social media. In it, he said he did not want to meet any politician. He had only one request: that the accused be given the death penalty through a fair trial. He said no politician should visit their home until justice was given to his daughter.


Swift Justice

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis called the crime deeply saddening and said it was “highly shameful.” He announced that the case would be tried in a fast-track court, which means the trial will move much faster than a normal court case. He also said a special public prosecutor — a lawyer hired just for this case by the government — would be appointed to make sure the accused gets the strongest punishment possible.


Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar said, as a mother, she could feel the pain of the victim’s family. She promised the government would not rest until the family got justice. BJP legislator Chitra Wagh said the incident had shaken society and that the fight for justice must continue till the end. Opposition leaders were sharp in their criticism of the government. NCP-SP MP Supriya Sule called the crime “inhuman.” She questioned how a man who had committed similar crimes twice before was ever given bail. She also pointed out that the Maharashtra Women’s Commission does not currently have a chairperson, asking: “Where are we supposed to go to ask for justice?” She demanded the case be heard in a fast-track court and that the accused be given the death penalty.


Slanging Match

Congress Legislature Party leader Vijay Wadettiwar targeted the Home Ministry and said the “fear of the law has vanished” under the present government. He called for a complete overhaul of how children are kept safe. NCP-SP’s Rohit Pawar also questioned how a known repeat offender was free to roam around the village without any police watch.


The National Commission for Women took up the case on its own and asked the government to file a chargesheet quickly under the POCSO Act. The Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights also stepped in, asking the government to appoint a special public prosecutor and move the case to a fasttrack court. The Pune rural police have set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of six officers, including two women police officers. Keeping children safe is not just a job for the police. It is the responsibility of every adult in a community — teachers, neighbours, grandparents, shop owners. If any adult behaves strangely around children, that should be reported immediately.


Children themselves must know that if any grown-up makes them feel scared or uncomfortable, they should run to a trusted adult and tell them. There is no shame in speaking up. Speaking up can save a life. The police are working to ensure Bhimrao Kamble faces the full weight of the law. That is necessary. But justice for this little girl also means making sure no child in Nasrapur — or anywhere in Maharashtra or India — ever has to go through what she went through. She deserved to grow up. She deserved to go to school, make friends, and see many more calves in many more summers.


(The writer is a political observer. Views personal.)

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