Indian Army wants anti-drone ammunition for its Russian weapons

Looking to indigenise ammunition for two Russian-origin weapon systems – needed for shooting down enemy drones -- the Ministry of Defence has asked Indian suppliers if they can meet the needs.

India is increasingly looking to make on its own, spares and ammunition for Russin origin weapons systems.

The Ministry of Defence on Thursday, issued a request for information (RFI) which is the first step in the acquisition process, asking Indian suppliers to send in their proposals to make ‘23mm’ anti-drone ammunition in India.  Defence public sector undertakings and private vendors are eligible to send their proposals.

The ‘23mm’ anti-drone ammunition is intended to be used with the existing air defence weapons the ‘Zu 23mm’ and the ‘Schilka’. Both the weapons are used by the Indian Army for close air defence against enemy aerial attacks.

The need to add more ‘anti-drone’ equipment stems from the recent conflicts that demonstrated effective employment of drones. In the conflict in Russia-Ukraine and also in the recent past the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict drones have been used extensively.

This included the use of commercially available off-the shelf drones and more sophisticated unmanned aerial systems and even armed drones. In modern day warfare the commercially available drones have a higher survivability rate. Due to their small size they are not spotted on the radar and cost as low as $50 (≈ Rs 4,000), hence not draining resources.

Countering these drones with the current gun-ammunition is a challenge and hence specialised anti-drone ammunition which can be fired from existing ‘Zu 23mm’ and ‘Schilka’.

Both the Zu 23mm and Schilka have a high-rate of fire against anti-aircraft system. These are used for providing specific air defence to critical vulnerable areas and vulnerable points.

At present both the weapon systems use specific ‘armour piercing incendiary tracer (APIT) and high explosive incendiary tracer (HEIT) ammunition, however, the hit probability is low as the guns are manually controlled and the ammunition can cause damage only on making a direct hit.

To tackle this, the Army is looking at ammunition that would have a ‘proximity fuse’ capable of detonating near the enemy drone.

This will improve the probability of a hit as the ammunition would explode in the vicinity of enemy drone, bringing it down.