Defence Ministry Seeks 2,715 Logistic Drones to Strengthen Indian Army Supply Chain on China, Pakistan Borders

The Ministry of Defence intended to procure 2,715 logistic drones for the Indian Army, aimed to speed up deliveries of rations, ammunition and other supplies to troops posted along the borders with China and Pakistan.

On Thursday, the ministry issued a request for information (RFI) asking the vendors for these drones. It wants three types of drones, capable of operating up to 6,000 feet, between 6,000 feet and 12,000 feet and between 12,000 feet and 20,000 feet. These would be used for last-mile delivery to forward posts, in peace and in war, across terrain ranging from the plains to high, snow-bound mountains.

Each drone system, according to the RFI, should come with an aerial vehicle, a ground control station, a remote video terminal, a colour day camera and a night thermal sensor that shows images in black and white. It should also carry GPS, a unit that tracks the drone's own movement, and obstacle-detection technology such as LIDAR.

The Army has asked that the drones should fly in fully autonomous, manual and return-home modes and that they be capable of landing on unprepared ground, since forward posts rarely have proper airstrips.

Endurance and range requirements vary by altitude band, but the mission range in each case should not fall below 10 to 20 kilometres one way. The Army also wants the drones to withstand extreme conditions – operating temperatures ranging from minus 30 degrees Celsius to 50 degrees Celsius – and to survive at least 1,000 landings over a service life of no less than seven years.

The ministry wants the drones to resist jamming and spoofing, so enemy signals cannot block them or take control mid-flight. They should also carry identification technology, so that India's own air-defence systems do not mistake them for hostile aircraft in a battle zone.

As per the document, only original equipment makers, authorized vendors or government-backed export agencies can respond to the RFI. The ministry has made it clear that this step does not commit it to buying anything at this stage.

If the plan goes through, it would be one of the largest single orders of logistic drones the army has placed so far. It is part of a wider push to rely less on soldiers and mules to carry supplies to isolated, high-altitude posts along India's northern borders.

How the numbers have grown

It should be noted that in December 2022, the ministry floated an RFI for 570 such drones, split between a standard version for altitudes up to 12,000 feet and a high-altitude version for anything above that.

A later tender, issued under a fast-track procedure, sought 363 more drones – 200 for medium altitudes and 163 for high altitudes, mainly to strengthen supply lines along the border.

Another RFI followed in 2025, again covering medium- and high-altitude drones for the same stretch of terrain, from Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

Seen together, the Indian Army’s logistic drone requirement has grown several times over in four years. The latest request for 2,715 drones is the largest single procurement sought so far. It underscores how indispensable drones have become for sustaining forward posts along the Line of Control (LoC) and the Line of Actual Control (LAC).