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...

min read

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.)

State govt now owns iconic Air India building

Quaid Najmi

Jun 2

4 min read

Chief Minister’s office could be relocated to Air India building paving way for the Central Vista project

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has finally become the new owner of the iconic white Air India Building at Nariman Point, with its landmark Centaur logo visible from long distances.

Three years after the cabinet granted approval in Nov. 2023, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today presided over a ceremony for the registration of the purchase agreement of the 52-year-old tower that once housed the headquarters of the country’s national carrier Air India.

The government bought over the 23-storied building with a built-up area of 46,470 sq metres for Rs 1,601-cr and is now expected to shift several state administration offices there, saving a whopping Rs 200 cr per annum in rentals alone, said officials.

The government had also decided to waive off all unearned income and other penalties, totaling to around Rs. 250 cr. on Air India to speed up the building acquisition process.

New Chapter

The plot for the AI headquarters was allotted by the state government in 1970 on a 99-year lease. It was designed and built by a New York-based architect, John Burgee in 1974 – marking a new chapter in the development of Nariman Point into a swank central business district.

Standing at the western entry to Nariman Point Air India Building’s immediate neighbours are the 35-storied The Oberoi luxury hotel and the 25-storied Express Towers, built a few years prior to the Air India headquarters, all facing the picturesque Arabian Sea and serving as the starting point of the “Queen’s Necklace” stretching on to Malabar Hill.

The building - which served as a giant screen for some of the evening events of the inaugural Festival of France here in 1989 - was targeted by a massive terror bombing on March 12, 2993, but emerged virtually unscathed from the disaster.

Officials indicated that now the building will undergo a thorough structural audit to make it reusable, as certain interiors are not in proper shape, lifts and central air-conditioning are reportedly non-functional, while at least nine floors are fully vacant.

When the government first decided to monetise the building around eight years ago there were many who coveted it – Air India, LIC, JNPA and of course the state government – but finally Maharashtra bagged it.

Fadnavis, who had met the then Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had urged the Centre to consider the request as the state government was facing a huge space crunch.

After a fire engulfed Mantralaya in 2012, several departments like Rural Development, Public Health and Medical Education, Water Supply and Sanitation were shifted to the GT Hospital. These and certain other departments are likely to be shifted to the new acquisition within a year or so – barely a stone’s throw away from the state government’s seat of power, said an official.

The Centre had created a company, Air India Assets Holdings Ltd in 2018 to manage all properties owned by Air India, and the building still has some private and central government tenants.

Abode for a ‘Maharaja’

In its days of glory, the building was a coveted address with the Air India offices on the upper floors, almost like the royal abode of a Maharajah. It included the airline’s CMD chambers with a special private lift going up just one floor from the reception, affording a breathtaking view of the Mumbai skyline.

Among the legends who once occupied the office included Bharat Ratna and the Father of Civil Aviation in India, J. R. D. Tata, who served as the carrier’s Chairman and Managing Director; and later his colleague Russi H. Mody also graced the position.

At one point, the Air India building boasted of a priceless collection of art and artefacts, paintings, statues, etc, which were later passed onto to the National Gallery of Modern Art.

Central Vista Project

The 4.99 lakh square foot building was constructed in 1974 on a plot of land owned by the Maharashtra government. The state government has planned to shift four departments – public health, medical education, water supply and sanitation, along with rural development – to the Air India building in the initial stage. These departments were moved out of Mantralaya to the GT Hospital.

A source said the Chief Minister’s office is also likely to be shifted to the Air India building once the state government gets the building’s full control.

The state government has also mooted a Central Vista project on the lines of the one in New Delhi. The project is likely to take pace now as the government starts process to occupy the Air India building. “There is ample space in the Air India building to house the Chief Minister’s office. If the CM decides, the state can have its own central vista in future.”

At present nine floors of the Air India building are vacant. Three floors house GST offices. The income-tax department has eight floors. The ground and first floors are currently with Air India. The Maharashtra government outbid the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) and the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). They had proposals of Rs 1,400 crore and Rs 1,375 crore respectively against Air India’s asking price of Rs 2,000 crore.