Special Report: India's ideaForge advances sovereign UAV capabilities

ideaForge's Zolt tactical UAV can support ISR, targeting, and air-launched effects missions. (ideaForge)

Mumbai-based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) firm ideaForge is broadening its focus beyond intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) UAVs to include combat systems.

Explaining the rationale for its diversification, ideaForge's CEO and co-founder Ankit Mehta told Janes in September that customer demand had long existed for combat systems, but the company initially focused on developing the fundamental capabilities needed to support them.

Mehta said the foundational technologies needed for autonomous targeting systems include ideaForge's in-house electronic-warfare (EW) resilience suite, global navigation satellite services (GNSS)-denied navigation capability, communications systems resilient to jamming, and edge-compute payloads.

According to Mehta, operational experience during Operation ‘Sindoor' highlighted demand for unmanned systems that can not only attack targets but also integrate with observation and ISR platforms. India launched Operation ‘Sindoor' against what it described as terrorist targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir in May 2025, following the Pahalgam attack.

“You need sensors like drones to get the target information, get the target co-ordinates; and to monitor whether the targeting was successful or not,” he said.

Users can face challenges when target detection and engagement are handled by separate systems, Mehta added. When an ISR UAV identifies a target, the user needs a clear way to communicate information to the system intended to engage it. Mehta said ideaForge and its customers had identified this problem in contested environments.

Customers are therefore increasingly seeking integrated solutions, he said.