Measures to counter rogue drones will be submitted to govt soon: BCAS chief

A report recommending measures to counter rogue drone attacks on airports is being finalised and it will be submitted to the civil aviation ministry soon, aviation security chief Rakesh Asthana said on Thursday. There is a need for a technology that can prevent rogue usage of drones in the country, the director general of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) said at a FICCI programme on 'Countering Rogue Drones'. "Drones can be used for the betterment of society or for killing people and destroying assets. Both the government and civilians are using drones for commercial purposes. However, we need a technology that can identify which drone is good and which is rogue," Asthana said.

The measures to counter rogue drones, he said would include neutralising drones through a "soft kill" approach which will include entrapping or jamming drones instead of destroying them. "The civil aviation ministry had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the DG BCAS with members from DG CAM, IB, DRDO, the Airports Authority of India, CISF, NSG to find the best available counter drone solutions and standards to safeguard civil aviation against possible drone attacks in India," he said.

"We have taken the line trials, second pilot has just been over. We are in the process of finalising our recommendations and it will be submitted to the government of India soon," the BCAS director general said. India should develop a technology to determine which drone is rogue and which is good, he said.

"Whether you go in for commercial or security purposes, the technology has to be such which can prevent rogue drones in our country," Asthana said. Joint Secretary at the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence, Sanjay Jaju said drone technology has immense potential and, as per the NITI Aayog, the sector is likely to reach USD 50 billion in the next 15 years.

Calling for indigenisation of drone manufacturing and counter drone solutions, he said,"If we can manufacture world class drones within the country, we can obviously manufacture world class counter drone measures." "Otherwise what will happen is dependence on global market will continue for the anti-drone measures as it is for drones currently," Jaju noted.

On the occasion, a report on countering rogue drones was released and it recommended five key areas that India needs to focus on - empowering the homeland security forces, risk and asset profiling, boost allocation for indigenous research and development, liquidating the threat of legacy UAVs and citizen participation.

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