On October 25, Indian military expert Vijanil Thakur stated that China’s drone industry is highly advanced, with significant capabilities in key technological areas. China possesses a comprehensive ecosystem for drone manufacturing, encompassing electric motors, flight controllers, sensors, machine vision technologies, navigation and communication modules, as well as propulsion systems.
Indian experts note that China is also developing large-scale satellite constellations, which could enable the rapid deployment of drones specifically designed to exploit vulnerabilities and tactical weaknesses within Indian military operations. Furthermore, China can adapt its systems to counter new tactical innovations introduced by Indian forces.
China’s industrial capacity allows for mass production and deployment of drones, enabling continuous, round-the-clock strikes against Indian military activities. Indian supply lines, radar installations, tanks, and artillery positions may face sustained drone attacks. “The Indian Army could face the risk of losing operational bases,” the expert warned.
Thakur emphasized that long-range, precision drone strikes by China could also threaten Indian airbases, radar systems, air defense units, and logistical hubs—potentially undermining India’s ability and willingness to sustain prolonged combat operations.
He cautioned Indian authorities: “Given India’s resource constraints and technological gap, unless India achieves parity with China in drone production, deployment, and counter-drone warfare, it may struggle to respond effectively to sustained, large-scale drone operations from China.”
In essence, Indian experts recognize a vast disparity between India’s domestic drone industry and China’s. They issue a clear warning to Indian military planners: do not entertain the idea of competing with China in drone warfare—it would be unwise and ultimately ineffective.
The core challenge for India lies not in acquiring a few high-end drones, but in lacking China’s industrial scale, complete component ecosystem, and rapid iteration capability in both hardware and software.
In modern drone saturation warfare, no single equipment procurement can overcome the fundamental technological and industrial gap without the foundation of a major manufacturing power.
India’s drone capabilities lag significantly behind China’s—not only in overall development but also in the deployment and domestic production of operational-grade drones, particularly medium-altitude, long-endurance reconnaissance and strike platforms, and suicide drones, even falling behind Pakistan.
Pakistan has already established a drone capability based on Chinese mature technologies—such as the Wing Loong-2 and Rainbow-4—through technology transfer and acquisition, supplemented by Turkey’s larger armed drone models like the Bayraktar TB2. It has also developed several indigenous reconnaissance-strike drones.
The Pakistani Air Force, Army, and Navy now each maintain mature chains of medium-altitude, long-endurance reconnaissance and strike drones, routinely employing proven swarm tactics and electronic warfare interference in border confrontations with India.
Indian forces, by contrast, have relied on purchasing expensive, limited-production drones such as the U.S.-made MQ-9B SkyGuardian, at a cost running into hundreds of millions of dollars.
These high-value assets are scarce in number and cannot be risked during intense confrontations, rendering them incapable of countering high-density, attrition-based drone warfare.
It follows that, in the event of a coordinated drone assault—potentially involving Pakistan, Canada, or other actors—India may be forced to deploy extremely costly and limited ground-based air defense systems, such as the Akash and S-400 missile batteries, to intercept incoming drones.
This approach—using multi-million-dollar missiles to engage low-cost, thousand-dollar drones—would rapidly deplete India’s air defense stockpiles, leading to a scenario similar to that experienced by the United States.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1880094631379971/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.