IAF Opens Dronathon Trials for Unmanned Systems at Pokhran

The Indian Air Force opened Dronathon-2026 at the Pokhran Field Firing Range on September 14, beginning a three-day programme of unmanned-system demonstrations in desert conditions.

Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, Vice Chief of the Air Staff, inaugurated the event and released an IAF roadmap for unmanned and autonomous systems, according to SSBCrack’s opening-day account.

Testing across the unmanned-system chain

More than 20 companies and other organisations are participating. Bharat Shakti’s report describes demonstrations spanning surveillance, autonomous operations, swarms, electronic warfare and counter-unmanned aircraft systems, scheduled through September 16.

The opening programme also demonstrated Vayu UTtaM, an indigenous unmanned-traffic-management system. The reports say it detected and tracked military and civilian unmanned aircraft during the demonstration. They do not publish detection rates, false-alarm rates or acceptance criteria.

From demonstration to qualification

Operating in desert conditions can reveal problems that a controlled indoor demonstration misses. Dust, heat, communications conditions and the interaction of several systems all matter to reliability.

Participation is not a procurement award, and a successful demonstration is not a blanket qualification for every operating environment. The useful follow-up will be the systems selected for further evaluation and the results of defined trials.

For Indian developers, the roadmap can help clarify the IAF’s priorities. The current event is an opportunity to test and align development work; its eventual contribution should be measured through documented outcomes and subsequent qualification milestones.

Image: IAF officials inspect unmanned-system hardware at Dronathon, as pictured in opening-day coverage.