Defence News | Sky Reaper Drone Unveiled: India’s New High-Speed Combat UCAV

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Taking cue from the lessons learned during operation Sindhu and US Israel Iran war, IIT Jammu in collaboration with several laboratories of DRDO and startup, they are working on a technology that's going to give Indian Army an edge during asymmetric as well as symmetric warfare.

[00:00:16]And here you can see, right now I'm showing you the model of Sky Reaper. Sky Reaper is basically unmanned combat aerial vehicle that they are working on right now. This unmanned aerial combat vehicle, this can move with precision, with very high speed at a very high altitude. And it can penetrate into enemy airspace and hit target with precision. One, it can be used for intelligence. Other, it can be used for surveillance. It can be used for reconnaissance. And it can be used for combat purpose. So, it's going to be a multi-purpose drone that they are right now working on. In coming days, they are going to conduct a test along with 16 core. And after that, this will be inducted in Indian Army because it's going to give them an edge. The best thing about this drone will be that because of its speed, it will not be detected by enemy radar system. It can easily penetrate through the system. And also, when we talk about its height, it can up to fly up to the area of about 10 km altitude. That's one of the reason that we call it a high altitude drone also. And one more important thing is that this is basically a kind of a hybrid. When we say hybrid, it's a hybrid between like a strike drone and also the surveillance drone. Because normally there are two types of drone. One is the strike drone, which is used for the combat attacks. And then there is a surveillance drone also that's used for gathering intelligence. Now, what they are trying to do is that they are trying to ensure that it should be artificial intelligence guided missile. So, that in case whenever it is launched, that it have not to be dependent on the man on the ground. On spur of the moment that this drone all of a sudden can take decision of its own whether it has to shift from a surveillance mode to the combat mode or what actually has to do.

[00:01:50]Because what is more important in any kind of a warfare that is element of surprise. By making it AI guided missile, making it AI guided drone, they are going to add that element of surprise in it. So, they are right now working on this drone and very soon the test will be conducted. Already let me give you show you the details because it can carry a warhead about 30 kg and it has got a range of 400 400 km which they are going to increase from 400 to 500 km in coming days. And it can be moved at the altitude of about 10 km.

[00:02:25]And it's an all-terrain drone because for this drone you don't need any kind of runway. And when we say not a runway is required, that means it can be launched from desert, it can be launched from sea, it can be launched from mountain. So, that's one of the important. Let me talk to the people who had been working on this drone. Let me talk to them. Can you give us a detail how this drone is really going to be very important and going to add that element of surprise?

[00:02:51]Yes, I so we are building this it's a turbojet power unmanned aerial combat aerial vehicle and we are building this drone the first the what a version you are seeing is a scale down prototype model version and we will be I mean this will get launched using a rocket assisted take off system and then the the propulsion will be taken care by a turbojet engine and then it can fly to a altitude up to 10 km once we the full version is developed the scale down version will go at a lower altitude and then it can penetrate into the enemy area and it can deploy a warhead or it can do a chemical assault strike.

[00:03:29]How happy you are right now with this working work right now going on? We are very excited with the progress that we are making. We have a team very active team working at IIT Jammu and we have a team working at IIT Madras. So, and we have got a lot of experts coming with us and different DRDO labs are in in collaboration and IIT Jammu has given us a lot of infrastructure and institutional support. What is more important is that all these young minds are working together. There's one more person with me. Let me talk to him.

[00:03:54]How good you feel to be a part of this team? I think this was my vision and when I graduated from IIT Jammu, it really came it up to me like, okay, I have to work on this technology and it's further I'm going to scale it further.

[00:04:05]So, if I'm contributing something to like Indian nation as a as a mind which I've been graduated from IIT. So, it's a very good opportunity for me to work on it and develop it and it can further contribute to our Indian nation.

[00:04:17]So, we have seen that over the period of time there has been a paradigm shift in the military strategy because we saw that after Uri attack, what India did India was able to send a message out and clear that if you are going to violate line of control, line of control is not going to be sacrosanct for us. For the first time we saw that how Indian army was able to carry out strike on several of their launch pads across the border.

[00:04:35]And after Pulwama bombing in 2019, we saw that this time Indian Air Force was able to penetrate 65 km inside Pakistan territory and they were able to demolish and decimate Jaish-e-Mohammed headquarter. But during operation Sindhu, Indian army did not even cross the line of control and they were able to decimate nine of their terror den. A 26-minute 22-minute operation, 26 missiles were fired, nine of their terror dens were completely decimated and demolished. So, that's one of the reason that everybody has realized how important these drones, these missiles are for the modern warfare. So, modern warfare you have to be well prepared. And more important is that you need to have your own production. You can't be dependent on any other country. That's what actually Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also talking about why this really the invention makes site more important is that it's make in India. It's a make in India product. It's an indigenous product because it's IIT Jammu with the help of the DRDO laboratories and the startup here, they're working together in tandem with complete synergy trying to make a product because in future they will not have to be dependent and buying things from other countries. So, they will be having their own product.

[00:05:39]Because at the end of the day, what actually is required is that you need to have a proper supply chain. Once the supply chain is there, you're not dependent on any of the countries. And second thing is that you can produce this at a low cost. That means it is economical as compared to the other drones what you'll be buying from other countries.

[00:05:57]BECAUSE THAT WAY YOU'LL BE ABLE to produce more and more. So, it's not only about three to four days. Operation Sindhu was about 80 hours operation. It was for four days. But we've we've seen that in case of what really happened in Israel-US-Iran war. It has been continuing even after two months. So, if it's going to be longer war, you have to be PREPARED TO SUSTAIN SUCH A SYSTEM.

[00:06:16]And another thing that they're working on is this drone. Let me talk about this also. Because it is used for the loitering munition. That's again very important. That they are going to further integrate this into Pinaka, the system that's available with the Indian Army. It can carry a warhead about 20 kg. It can move with a speed of about 600 km. They're working on. So, both these will be available in the coming days. We have already seen that how these loitering munition can >> [snorts] >> not only demoralize the forces enemy forces, but it can also inflict maximum casualty. Once you inflict maximum casualty, you are able to have a demoralizing effect on the adversary. That's what actually they're going to do. And one more important feature about this drone, let me talk about, is that this is reusable. It is not an expendable like loitering munition. It is use usable that it can be used again and again. And with this propelled like a turbojet engine, it can move with a speed faster speed like we can say when it comes to egress or ingress. Ingress is like entering or just moving out. So, with the fast speed it can move out without being detected by any of those radars or the aerial defense system, thus making it a lethal weapon. And it can definitely going to send shivers down the spine of enemy. And what is more important is that young Indian minds are working on it. And my youngsters from IIT Jammu are working on this product.

[00:07:35]Already they have test fired it. And very soon they are going to test it with the northern uh, uh, 16 core. And after that this is going to be important part of army arsenal and it's really going to make a difference.

[00:07:49]It definitely is going to send shivers down the spine of envy. Pradeep Dutta with Neeraj Kumar for NDTV.