New Delhi, Sept 15

 RattanIndia Enterprises Ltd. (REL), a leading Company that is into new-age businesses including electric motorcycles, drone solutions, e-commerce and fintech, announced today the launch of ‘Defender’ by its company TAS (Throttle Aerospace Systems). The unveiling took place at the hands of honorable Minister, Gen. V.K. Singh, MOS, Civil Aviation, Govt. of India at Air Force Auditorium, Subroto Park, Delhi during the ‘Unmanned Aerial Systems India, 2022’ event.

Defender is an indigenously developed tracking and capturing system for rogue drones. Defender is loaded with 13 pre-programmed to neutralize the rogue drones. With rising instances of drone-based aerial threats to restricted installations under defence and private airspace, this solution will provide a first-of-a-kind capability to the Indian defence establishment to get rid of rogue drones flying over unauthorized airspace.

TAS product is developed with AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities to take real-time decisions to facilitate the capture and subsequent retrieval of rogue drones. Defender employs a soft kill approach wherein a net capture mechanism is utilized. Defender is thus able to instantaneously neutralize emergent threat before it can render any harm. Moving at top speeds of 26 m/s (  ̴95km/hr) with range up to 20 kms in a single flight, the fast response time of Defender will considerably limit the potential of the rogue drone to inflict damage. Most importantly, this will be manufactured completely in India using indigenous technologies and will contribute to the ‘Make in India’ program.

 Commenting on the occasion, Anjali Rattan, Business Chairperson of RattanIndia Enterprises Limited said, “We are pleased to have the opportunity to unveil this product at the Unmanned Aerial Systems India, 2022 in presence of the members from the armed forces, the defence establishment and industry. ‘Drone Defender’ is an important addition to our new product line-up at TAS and to our strategy of supporting the drone solutions economy through advanced, home-grown offerings. I am proud of our TAS team, which has developed ‘Drone Defender’ to support our armed forces. Drone-based threats continue to challenge important assets globally and through this offering we are levelling the playing field while also protecting lives.”

Nagendran Kandasamy, Founder & CEO of TAS said, “Drone Defender represents a key milestone in India’s journey of self-reliance in defence preparedness. With in-house development of the core hardware and software technologies and domestic design & manufacturing, the product also represents a new flagship offering from the NeoSky and TAS teams. Incorporating deep tech, combining sophisticated hardware and AI based decision-making for targeting rogue drones, ‘Drone Defender’ can effectively neutralize threats without any human intervention. “

Defence forces and private industry largely rely on imported drones, acquired at a significantly higher cost to defend assets. ‘Done Defender’ envisions a local solution, at a highly competitive operating cost. TAS is aligned to undertake manufacture and sales of initial batches of the product in the coming weeks and is in dialogue with select institutions for pre-sales demonstrations.

‘Drone Defender’ is the 4th novel product to join the repertoire of TAS’s defence drones. TAS has been the first company to successfully complete BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) pilot, flying with a delivery load of 5kg. It has gained experience and commercial competence in defence segment through surveillance and logistics drone systems.