The Indian Air Force (IAF) has projected a requirement of 800 medium-range swarm unmanned munition systems (SUMS) to meet its requirements for remotely targeting hostile objectives at ranges over 350km.

Each system would have a swarm of at least 20 drones that can be launched in quick succession, loiter over a designated area beyond 350km for at least 30 minutes and autonomously search, detect and identify static or moving targets.

“Swarm drones are effective as they saturate enemy air defence systems, confuse the enemy radars and provide IAF decision makers the option to deploy in a couple of hours against hostile command and control targets,” a request for proposal issued by the Ministry of Defence on October 25 states.

The IAF wants fixed-wing drones with a hybrid jet-engine and batt

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