Indian military building capabilities to deal with drone threats: Army chief

FOUR days after India experienced an unprecedented drone-supported terror attack on a military installation in Jammu, its army chief Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane said easy availability of drones has increased the complexity of security challenges but added that the Indian military is working on enhancing its capacities to effectively deal with the threats, be it from state-sponsored elements or by states themselves.

Addressing a think-tank virtually on Thursday (1), Naravane said the security establishment is well aware of the challenges and certain measures have been taken to deal with them.

“We are developing capabilities to deal with the threats whether they are state-sponsored or by states themselves. We are developing capabilities to deal with drone threats both in the kinetic and non-kinetic realm,” he said in connection with the drone attacks at the Indian Air Force’s base at the Jammu airport that damaged the roof of a building and left two airmen with minor injuries. More drones were reportedly spotted by the Indian personnel in the subsequent days.

On the situation along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, Naravane said there has been no infiltration along the LoC after a ceasefire understanding was made between the India and Pakistani forces in February. He said because of zero infiltration, the number of terrorists in Kashmir has become less and with that the number of terror-related incidents has also dropped.

“There will always be elements who will try to sabotage process of peace and development; we have to cater for that,” he said, adding: “We have a strong counter-terrorism and counter-infiltration grid in Jammu and Kashmir and our operation to ensure peace and tranquillity will continue.”