New Delhi: India’s primary concern would not necessarily be the supply of drones developed by leading Ukrainian drone and missile manufacturer ‘Fire Point’ to Pakistan, as Ukraine is unlikely to deliver them amid the ongoing war with Russia. New Delhi should instead be more focused on the possibility of a technology pipeline developing between the two countries than on the acquisition of a specific weapon, a report has highlighted.
“Pakistan has already declared the rapid expansion and local production of unmanned aerial systems to be a top ‘national priority’. Islamabad aims to acquire know-how from a defence industry that has been forced by war to quickly innovate in areas such as long-range strikes, navigation, electronic warfare, resilience, and mass production by working with private commercial firms,” a report in ‘India Narrative’ detailed.
“The country has already encouraged private-sector participation in defence production, and domestic firms have expanded their work on indigenous UAVs, including testing locally developed engines and propulsion systems. The country has also expanded its military drone fleet in light of lessons learned on the battlefield in Ukraine. Therefore, training, production assistance, components, software, manufacturing techniques, and operational experience could ultimately be more significant than the number of imported drones,” it mentioned.
According to the report, India’s traditional advantage of strategic depth could come under pressure as Ukraine’s leading drone and missile manufacturer, Fire Point, explores offering Pakistan its technologies and wartime experience. It stated that any potential drone agreement could add a new layer to India’s security challenges.
The report noted that India now has a strong interest in tracking not only any potential acquisition of Fire Point drones by Pakistan but also whether cooperation extends into local production, training, or technology transfer. It argued that Pakistani production capability built partly on Ukrainian battlefield experience would be far harder to control.
“Indian defence sector also needs to speed up the development of layered counter-drone and air defence capabilities while also increasing its capacity for long-range unmanned systems. Alongside conventional surface-to-air missiles, electronic warfare, passive detection, artificial intelligence-assisted target recognition, directed-energy systems, and inexpensive interceptors will become increasingly important,” the report stated.
“The central lesson is clear: the next phase of military competition between India and Pakistan may be less influenced by the number of fighter aircraft each side possesses than by the ability to produce, deploy, and defend against large numbers of increasingly capable autonomous and semi-autonomous weapons,” it emphasised.
(IANS)
