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.)

When Solar Starts Chilling Milk

Anusreeta Dutta

Aug 11

5 min read

India’s renewable-energy story is moving beyond electricity access to protecting rural value by cutting waste and strengthening livelihoods.

For decades, the story of rural energy in India was about providing electricity to communities. But the next chapter might be something more practical: what power can really do for rural economies. In Maharashtra, solar electricity is being used to cool milk, which sounds like a simple task. Dairy collection centers in Dharashiv and Latur are relying less on traditional electricity and diesel with solar-powered milk chilling infrastructure, which also helps chill milk closer to where it is collected. The development is part of a larger trend taking place across India’s dairy sector where the cold chain is getting access to renewable energy.

India is the world’s largest producer of milk, producing close to 209 million tons of milk per year. But the nation’s dairy business still faces a fundamental infrastructure problem: milk is highly perishable, and the route from farm to processing plant starts in villages where reliable refrigeration is not always available. The fresh milk from the animal may be at the temperature of 35 to 37 degrees Celsius. It is necessary to maintain at or below 4°C to prevent microbial activity and maintain quality. Therefore, refrigeration has become an integral part of the dairy supply chain. This is when India’s energy crisis turns into a dairy crisis.

Unreliable Grid

The margin for error in a milk collection center that lacks reliable power is very small. The farmers bring their milk in the morning. If it isn’t chilled quickly, the quality begins to decline. A power outage is therefore more than a nuisance to the collection center; it can mean lower-quality milk, more spoiling, and ultimately, lost revenue. Many years, diesel generators were a backup. Diesel solves one problem but creates another. It increases operating expenses and adds emissions to an already climate-affected supply chain. WWF-India states that more than 3 percent of India’s milk production is lost every year due to unpredictable energy, which is equivalent to about six million tons. Its work on sustainable dairy cold chains demonstrates how solar-powered chilling can reduce fuel dependence, pollution, and milk losses.

That impacts how we look at rural solar. The usual story goes like this: solar panels power homes, farms, and irrigation pumps. What is more interesting is when that electricity starts to power useful infrastructure.

A solar panel powering a milk chiller does more than just generate clean power. It protects the farmer's produce. It adds time between production and collection. It can cut the demand for diesel. And most importantly, it can help to decide whether milk is sold as a higher-quality commodity or as a perishable liability.

When people talk about cold chains in India, they often talk of warehouses, refrigerated trucks, and large processing facilities. However, the first and perhaps most important relationship can be considerably smaller: the local village collection center. Small dairy farms mostly do not have their own refrigeration facilities. Milk is collected from a number of producers and taken to a processing plant. Thus, the collecting center is a link between the formal dairy market and the producers. That bridge needs some kind of power. WWF-India’s renewable-energy dairy program has installed 101 solar-powered instant milk chillers in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. Together, these systems provide 851 kW of renewable capacity and cooling facilities for some 50,000 litres of milk per day.

Solar photovoltaic panels generate electricity, batteries provide backup, and thermal storage and cooling devices keep milk at safe temperatures. Renewable systems can give rural businesses some energy resilience on their own, instead of waiting for the electrical grid to stabilize entirely before productive infrastructure is built.

Energy Efficiency

India has invested decades in building electricity access. But access alone does not guarantee economic transformation. The tougher question is whether rural communities can regularly produce value from energy. A good example is the cooling of milk. If a dairy co-op saves money on diesel, some of that savings would stay in the local value chain. If milk quality improves, farmers may stand a better chance of getting quality-linked compensation. If spoilage rates decline, farmers will have more of what they grow to sell.

WWF-India says renewable-powered chilling can help farmers up their profits by improving the quality of milk and reducing fuel consumption significantly. It says the initiative has reduced diesel use by 90-95 percent among member dairy cooperatives.

There is also a gender aspect at play here. Women’s active participation in cattle management and other household dairy tasks is an important part of India’s dairy sector. What makes the Maharashtra case particularly interesting is the link between the solar cooling equipment and women dairy farmers and local collection networks. This raises larger issues on the sustainable energy transition of India. Who benefits a village from renewable infrastructure?

If only the electric consumer reacts, the impact is limited. But when farmers can save their produce, cut costs, enhance quality, and negotiate better market access through renewable energy, clean energy starts to work as economic infrastructure. This could be the start of a much larger tale.

But enthusiasm must be tempered by realism. A solar panel alone does not establish a functioning cold chain. Chilling facilities still require proper equipment, batteries or thermal storage, maintenance and reliable collection and transportation systems. There’s a big economics part of it too. In particular, small cooperatives and fragmented dairy markets face high capital costs. Solar generation is also variable. A well-designed system will need storage or some other backup device if milk needs to be kept cool after daylight hours. The issue of scale is also at stake.

Where milk volumes are sufficient and collection is organized, a village-level chiller may be effective. To scale the idea across thousands of remote settlements, it requires financing, maintenance networks, cooperative participation, and institutional support. The challenge is how to make it financially viable, and sustainable.

That may be why the Maharashtra experiment matters. Milk is only one of India’s many perishable agricultural commodities. The same problems exist with fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, and so on. A poor cold chain in these areas can convert a good harvest into an economic loss. Earlier, NITI Aayog had pointed out the opportunities for technology-enabled cold chains like solar refrigeration, IoT monitoring, and decentralized storage for reducing agricultural losses and improving farmer market access.

The opportunity is to shift from thinking about solar in terms of generating power to thinking about solar in terms of conserving economic value.

A solar milk chiller (SMC) serves as a link between production and marketing. These technologies collectively point to a new form of rural electrification that incorporates renewable energy directly into the economic activities that support rural livelihoods.

India’s energy transformation is usually told in form of gigawatts of solar power, renewable energy targets and big projects. But some of its biggest changes could happen on a much smaller scale. A solar panel above a village dairy collection center doesn't look like an energy revolution. But when that panel powers a chiller, keeps milk from spoiling, reduces diesel use, and helps a farmer get more value for her produce, the definition of clean energy changes. It is no longer enough to move from one source of electricity to another. Now is the time to strengthen rural economies.

Solar milk chillers in Maharashtra illustrate this possibility. The next chapter of India’s renewable energy story could possibly be about how much solar electricity waste can be avoided.

(The writer is a columnist and climate researcher with experience in political research analysis, ESG research, and energy policy. Views personal.)

The Beam That Blinds the Drone

When Solar Starts Chilling Milk

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