Army launches sovereign swarm capability push, seeks partner
Amid scrutiny of foreign, especially Chinese drone components, the project marks the Army’s push for sovereign swarm architecture built on indigenous algorithms and autonomy.NEW DELHI: The Indian Army is looking to build its own sovereign swarm warfare capability and has begun the search for a joint development partner to design and develop an indigenous swarm algorithm that could eventually provide it with a unified command, control and autonomy framework for multi drone operations.
Sources told the TNIE that the Army has invited bids for the project through a formal Request for Proposal, or RFP, and will hold a pre-bid meeting in the second week of May.
“This is far bigger than simply acquiring another swarm capability,” a source said. “What the Army is trying to do is build a common architecture of its own, so swarm operations are no longer tied to individual vendors or proprietary systems.”
The project comes at a time when contemporary conflicts have sharply underscored the operational value of networked drone swarms across surveillance, logistics, payload delivery and adaptive combat roles.
The project is structured in two phases over six months, beginning with an initial two-month stage focused on developing an indigenous ground control station and software-only integration framework capable of commanding existing drones without requiring changes to their hardware or firmware.
“The focus is on creating a secure common control layer over existing drone assets, with fully offline capability built in from the outset,” the source explained. “That is a deliberate requirement because this system is being designed for contested environments, where dependence on cloud architecture or external autonomy engines could become serious operational vulnerabilities.”
This phase will culminate in a live field demonstration where multiple drones, operating under a unified command structure, simultaneously carry out persistent surveillance and coordinated payload delivery missions.
The second phase, spanning the remaining four months, substantially expands the ambition from centralised control to decentralised swarm autonomy, with onboard computing, indigenous software stacks and greater battlefield resilience.
“The objective is to test whether these prototypes can continue functioning in tougher, more realistic operational conditions, rather than only in controlled environments,” the source said. It will test adaptive formations, task reassignment, collision avoidance and the swarm’s ability to sustain operations even when communications are disrupted, drones are lost or navigation systems come under strain.
The stress on indigenous control also comes amid persistent security concerns over foreign, especially Chinese components in drone systems after past vulnerability scares triggered tighter scrutiny of military drone supply chains. That push has since widened into a published framework to weed out such components, which is set to be incorporated into the upcoming Defence Acquisition Procedure 2026.
The Army has also made it clear that indigenous control will be non negotiable. With third party black box autonomy engines barred, and source code and intellectual property to be jointly shared with the selected partner, the project signals a larger push to secure not just swarm capability, but control over its technological backbone.
