It has become imperative in recent times that the military have 24x7 intelligence and situational awareness of our nation's boundaries to maintain control and respond proactively to any emerging threats. Hence today, drones are playing a valuable role to fulfil this need without risking human life.
Eyeing this opportunity, Asteria Aerospace, based out of Bengaluru, has become one of India's leading drone manufacturers and suppliers across various military, paramilitary, and law enforcement agencies. Their drones provide situational awareness, surveillance, and actionable intelligence for our armed forces. Such applications required ruggedness, reliability, and top-notch performance. Asteria's drones have achieved critical mission success from the desert areas of Rajasthan to the high-altitude mountainous regions in Ladakh.
"Our drones offer class-leading flight times and are equipped with high-resolution day and night cameras to provide a real-time view of the terrain below. The drones are portable and can be easily transported and operated by a crew of two. Their assembly and disassembly are completely tool-less, which means they can be deployed in less than three minutes from a packaged state. Our focus on relentless innovation and quality assurance sets us apart from our competitors and positions us to be trusted providers of cutting-edge, reliable solutions to our customers," highlights Neel Mehta, Co-Founder of the company.
With the promising push towards self-sustenance by the Government of India through 'Atmanirbhar Bharat', the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has put an import embargo on 101 high-tech defence equipment, including drones. "This is an excellent opportunity for Indian companies to invest and strengthen their design, development, and manufacturing capabilities to address demand and supply gaps, and Asteria's plans are in line with the same," adds Neel.
A Game Changer in Drone Technology
When it comes to technological integration, Asteria's drones come with proprietary mission control software that provides a simple touchscreen interface for users to plan, execute and monitor drone flights, with immediate mission playback availability. The drones can be manually controlled or flown on a pre-programmed flight path, which can be changed dynamically during flight.
Our focus on relentless innovation and quality assurance sets us apart from our competitors and positions us to be trusted providers of cutting-edge, reliable solutions to our customers
Adding to it, Asteria also employ intelligent vision-based target tracking and moving target indicator features that aid the users in maintaining target lock. Several police forces have used Asteria's drones to maintain law and order and monitor COVID-19 lockdowns in major states. The Karnataka Forest Department had deployed these drones to check unlawful activities inside forests and keep a watch for forest fire incidents. Also, the paramilitary agencies have also used Asteria's drones to maintain surveillance and internal security in sensitive areas.
A Future-ready Organization
There is an immense potential for the use of drone technology in the country in the military and commercial sectors, making it a multi-billion-dollar market over the next few years. New-age technologies such as autonomy, AI/ML and 5G will converge with drones to create solutions that will transform traditional workflows in all industries. Further, the job market for drone-related careers is likely to multiply, generating unique employment opportunities for engineers and technical professionals.
As part of its roadmap, Asteria continues to invest in technology that can make drones more capable, reliable, safer, and easy to use. Gone are those days when cutting-edge defence technology was always imported into the country. Today, Indian companies are creating world-class solutions right here in the country and will soon reverse the trend by exporting them globally.
