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| Photo Credit: R. V. Moorthy
The Ministry of Defence has signed a ₹200 crore contract for anti-drone systems for the Indian Army and Indian Air Force (IAF) with Big Bang Boom Solutions Private Limited (BBBS). This is the largest contract signed by the MoD under the Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) initiative, according to the company.
“The focus of the iDEX programme is to foster an ecosystem of innovation and technology development in defence. It is our constant endeavour to engage with young innovators who can bring technologically advanced solutions for modernising the Indian military. This order contracted to Big Bang Boom Solutions is a step in that direction and we are happy to have young companies support the nation’s growth,” Vivek Virmani, CEO of iDex, which comes under the MoD, said.
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“BBBS’s Vajra Sentinel System is a state-of-the-art solution designed to detect, track and neutralise drones at extraordinary ranges. It utilises passive RF sensor technology to eliminate false alarms, and its sensor and jammer combination meets stringent military standard specifications for durability and reliability,” the company said in a statement. “It has a number of state-of-the-art tech improvements such as Advanced Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar and kamikaze drones which can be upgraded on demand by the user.”
The system’s core sensor, built around Artificial Intelligence and computer vision algorithms, enables precise identification, classification and location identification of drones, the company said, adding that its sophisticated decision-making matrix enables autonomous decision-making for countermeasures, including signal jamming.
“This is a significant milestone for us. Our product pipeline and mix for the next 10 years are robust and the team is raring to go. We have already started discussions on repeat orders and export opportunities. We will now reopen our doors to financial players who can come along in this next leg of nation building,” Praveen Dwarakanath, CEO, BBBS, said.