Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace announced on 5 March the successful testing of FWD YAMA, an autonomous swarm interceptor designed for counter-unmanned aerial systems (UAS), air defence, and Suppression of Enemy Air Defence (SEAD) missions. The system is intended to intercept aerial threats ranging from micro-drones to larger unmanned platforms using artificial intelligence-driven autonomous engagement.
The interceptor is designed to provide a lower-cost alternative to conventional missile-based air defence systems. The company said the platform could enable autonomous interception at up to 100 times lower cost, with a projected per-unit cost of approximately USD 10,000.
The development comes amid increasing use of low-cost drones in modern conflicts, where traditional air defence systems can face cost and capacity challenges against drone swarms. Flying Wedge said the FWD YAMA platform integrates artificial intelligence, precision-kill capability, swarm coordination, and network-centric integration to counter aerial threats.
The interceptor operates on an autonomous engagement architecture that can detect, classify, prioritise, track, and engage aerial threats after being cued by radar or surveillance systems. The system integrates radar-based cueing, multi-sensor data fusion, electro-optical and vision-based terminal tracking, and autonomous engagement logic to support precision interception.
“Recent global conflicts have demonstrated how low-cost drones can impose disproportionately high costs on traditional air defence systems. This makes one thing clear that the next war will be won by superior anti-drone systems. Meeting this challenge requires autonomous interception systems that are scalable, economically sustainable, and resilient in contested environments,” said Suhas Tejaskanda, Founder and CEO, Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace.
“The Autonomous Swarm Interceptor, FWD YAMA, is engineered to address this gap, enabling precision aerial interception at a projected cost that can be up to 100 times lower than conventional missile-based air defence systems, depending on configuration and mission profile. This enables sustained defence against drone swarm attacks without depleting high-value strategic missile inventories and strengthens India’s sovereign capability to counter evolving aerial threats,” he added.
Flying Wedge said the platform is designed to operate in GPS-denied and communication-contested environments, including under electronic warfare and jamming conditions. The system also supports coordinated swarm deployment, allowing multiple interceptors to autonomously distribute targets and conduct cooperative engagements.
The company said the interceptor can neutralise threats as small as micro-drones, including DJI Mini-class platforms, while retaining scalability against larger unmanned aerial systems. The platform has also been designed for airborne integration, with compatibility pathways for the company’s Kaalabhairav unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) series to enable air-to-air defensive operations.
Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace, an Indian defence technology company, develops artificial intelligence-enabled warfare systems including unmanned combat aircraft, autonomous air combat technologies, and network-centric defence platforms engineered and manufactured in India.
