Anti drone weapons used for the first time during Republic Day parade

New Delhi, Jan 27: For the first time anti-drone weapons were used to secure the VIPs at the Republic Day parade.

The anti-drone weapons including the ones indigenously manufactured by the DRDO were used at Janpath on January 26. The Union Home Minister Amit Shah authorised the use of these systems following an Intelligence Bureau warning.

IB officials tell OneIndia that they had intelligence that terror groups from Pakistan are likely to launch drone strikes.

The Intelligence Bureau has emphasised on using high tech equipment as the warning this time is specific to drone attacks.

These drones are a potential threat and the government is looking for a solution to counter this problem. In this regard, the agencies conducted a data estimation and learnt that there are over 6 lakh rogue or unregulated drones of various sizes and capacities.

These drones are a potential threat and the government is looking for a solution to counter this problem. In this regard the agencies conducted a data estimation and learnt that there are over 6 lakh rogue or unregulated drones of various sizes and capacities.

A recent paper titled 'Drones: A new frontier for Police' published in the Indian Police Journal (IPJ) by IPS officer and Additional Director General in Rajasthan Police, Pankaj Kumar Singh, has talked about these new techniques.

A drone gun is capable of jamming the radio, global positioning system (GPS) and mobile signal between the drone and the pilot and forces the drone to ground in good time before it could wreak any damage. This Australia designed weapon has an effective range of 2 km, the paper said.

Another solution to block a lethal drone is the sky fence system that uses a range of signal disruptors to jam the flight path and prevent them from entering their target, a sensitive installation or event venue, it said.

Officials said prototypes of these counter-drone weapons were displayed for the first time at an open field in a BSF camp in Bhondsi, Haryana last week as part of a national conference organised by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) on anti-drone technology.

The Centre now wants to impart training to police officers of all states to check this menace. The Bureau of Police Research and Development is currently in talks with the police chiefs of all states so that training can be imparted to counter new terror threats that have been emerging.