Two 20-year-old students make bomb-dropping drones that can't be detected on radar for Indian Army

Two 20-year-old engineering students from the prestigious Birla Institute of Technology And Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) have come up with highly advanced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the Indian Army, to be deployed in  Jammu, Chandimandir in Haryana, Panagarh in West Bengal, and Arunachal Pradesh.

 

The two youngsters, Jayant Khatri and Sourya Choudhury, have a start-up, Apollyon Dynamics, in  BITS Pilani Hyderabad campus. 

 

The duo have designed and built a kamikaze drone that has speeds exceeding 300 km per hour and can deliver up to 1kg payload with high accuracy.

 

Khatri and Choudhury have also developed multi-role aerial vehicles for long-range surveillance. They built these drones with off-the-shelf parts.

 

The two have come up with the drones within two months of launching their startup, Times of India reports.

ALSO READ: Building advanced drone systems for India's defence: RRP Defence, CYGR to bring next-gen UAVs to India

They then pitched these drones to the Indian Army officers through messages via LinkedIn. "I just started shooting cold e-mails to whoever I could find. Luckily, a colonel responded and called us to Chandigarh for a demo," TOI quoted Khatri as saying.

 

The Army was impressed by the live demo of drones and began placing orders. According to Choudhury, what makes them unique is the fact that they can't be detected on radar. The duo vouches for the "ruggedness, reliability and adaptability" of their drones. "Designed for versatility in high-stakes environments, these drones are capable of executing a wide range of tactical operations from precision kamikaze strikes and covert nighttime surveillance to strategic payload deployment," the told news agency PTI.

 

As the orders came in, they expanded their team to include six more students. They are now working on VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) and fixed-wing platforms.

 

We officially incorporated Apollyon Dynamics in mid-May and immediately set to work on developing our flagship kamikaze drone, along with advanced surveillance and payload-delivery platforms tailored for military and strategic applications, they said.

 

“The foundation at BITS Hyderabad empowered us to move fast, build responsibly, and solve real-world defence challenges,” Khatri has been quoted as saying to Telangana Today.

Defence