Why In News?

DRDO has initiated the SHIELD programme to build an S-band High-Power Microwave evaluation system to test electromagnetic lethality against drone swarms.

What is the SHIELD Programme?

SHIELD (S-Band High-Power Microwave Integrated Evaluation System for Lethality and Damage), is an advanced directed-energy testing framework developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

  • Functions as a ground and field testing platform to evaluate physical damage, electronic burnout, and disruption caused by microwave pulses on microelectronics.

  • Benchmarks the vulnerability of drone circuits, sensors, flight controllers, and guidance chips under different electromagnetic power densities.

  • Serves as a testbed to design, calibrate, and deploy High-Power Microwave (HPM) air defence weapons against hostile drones.

  • Partners with Indian private defence firms, manufacturers, and academic labs to build indigenous pulsed-power capacitors, microwave tubes, and antenna arrays.

What are High-Power Microwaves?

  • Directed Electromagnetic Radiation: High-Power Microwaves (HPM) are Directed Energy Weapons generating short, intense electromagnetic bursts.

  • Non-Kinetic Disruption: Disables internal electronics via electromagnetic induction without physical projectiles.

  • Dual Coupling Paths: Penetrates systems through antennas (front-door) or unshielded seams and wiring (back-door).

  • Electronic Damage: Induces voltage surges causing microchip burnout, memory loss, or resets.

  • Wide-Area Beam: Unlike pinpoint lasers, HPM emits a broad conical beam to target multiple electronics at once.

What is Drone Swarms?

Swarm drones are groups of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that operate collectively as a single, coordinated system to accomplish a mission.

Instead of each drone being flown individually by a human operator, a drone swarm utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and decentralized communication to mimic the natural swarming behaviors seen in flocks of birds, schools of fish, or colonies of ants.

Key Characteristics of Drone Swarms

  • Decentralized Autonomy: Usually no single "leader" drone. If one drone is destroyed or loses signal, the remaining drones immediately recalculate, adapt, and continue the mission without human intervention.

  • Inter-Drone Communication: The drones constantly share real-time data (like position, speed, and environmental obstacles) with each other to maintain formation and avoid mid-air collisions.

  • Scalability: Swarms can range from a dozen drones to thousands of units acting simultaneously.

  • Overwhelming Force: In military contexts, swarms are highly effective because they can saturate targets and overwhelm traditional defense systems, which are typically designed to track and shoot down only one or two targets at a time.

Primary Applications

  • Defense & Military: Overwhelming air defenses, reconnaissance over vast areas, electronic warfare (jamming), and coordinated kamikaze strikes.

  • Entertainment: Synchronized light shows at major events (like the Olympics or Super Bowl), replacing traditional fireworks.

  • Search & Rescue: Covering massive disaster zones quickly to locate missing persons or map out wildfire boundaries.

  • Agriculture: Monitoring crop health, mapping large fields, and precision spraying of pesticides over vast acreage.

  

Source: FINANCIALEXPRESS

PRACTICE QUESTION

Q. In the context of modern air defence, why are conventional surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems considered suboptimal for countering mass drone swarms?

A) Drone swarms emit high-frequency microwave pulses that detonate incoming missiles prematurely.

B) Drones always operate beyond the maximum altitude ceiling of conventional air defence radars.

C) The asymmetric cost exchange ratio and magazine capacity limitations make missile interception economically and operationally unviable.

D) International arms treaties strictly prohibit using kinetic munitions against unmanned aircraft.

Answer: C

Explanation:

- Drone swarms rely on low-cost, mass-produced platforms. Firing high-cost interceptor missiles (often costing $100,000 to over $1 million each) against cheap drones creates an unsustainable economic exchange ratio. Furthermore, air defence launchers carry a limited number of missiles, which can be quickly exhausted during swarm saturation attacks.