DRDO’s SHIELD programme: Inside India’s high-power microwave push against drone swarms

The programme is significant not because it represents the immediate deployment of a new anti-drone weapon, but because it could provide the testing infrastructure needed to understand how electronic systems behave when exposed to high-power microwave energy.

That information can feed into both sides of the military equation: developing systems capable of disabling hostile drones and protecting Indian platforms from similar electromagnetic attacks.

The initiative comes as DRDO and Indian defence companies pursue a set of directed-energy and counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) technologies.

What is DRDO’s SHIELD programme?

SHIELD stands for S-band High-Power Microwave Integrated Evaluation System for Lethality and Damage. DRDO has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) under its Technology Development Fund (TDF) scheme, inviting Indian industry to develop the system.

The TDF programme is designed to support the development of defence technologies by Indian companies, including start-ups, MSMEs and other private-sector players. In SHIELD’s case, the objective is not to immediately produce a field-deployable weapon but to create a sophisticated evaluation platform.

At its core, SHIELD is intended to answer a crucial question: what happens to electronic systems when they are exposed to high levels of microwave energy?

The system would allow researchers to expose equipment to controlled HPM radiation and assess whether the result is temporary disruption, degraded performance or permanent damage.

Such testing could cover a wide range of electronics, including communications equipment, sensors, control systems and other components that could be critical to the functioning of an unmanned aircraft.

Why the testing system matters

Modern drones are essentially flying networks of electronics. Their flight depends on systems such as flight controllers, navigation equipment, communications links, sensors, power electronics and onboard computing. Disrupting one or more of these systems can prevent a drone from carrying out its mission even if the physical airframe remains intact.

Instead of physically destroying a drone with a missile or projectile, a high-power microwave system attempts to interfere with or damage the target’s electronics. The approach is generally classified as a soft-kill capability.

For a military facing large numbers of relatively inexpensive drones, the ability to defeat a target without expending a conventional interceptor for every engagement could have significant operational and economic advantages.

But HPM effectiveness cannot simply be assumed. It depends on factors including the amount of energy delivered to the target, distance, beam characteristics, target geometry and, crucially, the vulnerability of the target’s electronic architecture.

“SHIELD-type testing could become increasingly important as modern defence platforms become more dependent on electronic systems, sensors, communications and automated controls,” Ankur Shah, Managing Director of Krishna Defence & Allied Industries Ltd (KDAIL), told The Financial Express.

Shah said such testing could help Indian defence manufacturers identify vulnerabilities earlier in the design and integration process and make their platforms more resilient against electromagnetic attacks.

From ‘does it work?’ to measuring exactly how much damage occurs

A major challenge in directed-energy warfare is establishing predictable effects. An electronic system may not simply switch from “working” to “destroyed”. Depending on the exposure, it could experience temporary interference, degraded performance, malfunction or irreversible damage.

A structured evaluation system can help researchers measure those effects systematically.

For example, testing could help establish the exposure levels at which particular electronic components begin to malfunction, how long the disruption lasts and what happens when the exposure is increased.

That can ultimately help generate vulnerability benchmarks. Such benchmarks have two applications.

First, they can help DRDO and Indian defence companies design HPM systems capable of defeating hostile electronics.

Second, they can help Indian defence manufacturers harden their own electronics against electromagnetic attack.

This makes SHIELD relevant not only to counter-drone warfare but also to the wider field of electronic warfare and electromagnetic survivability.

How does a high-power microwave weapon disable a drone?

A high-power microwave system directs concentrated electromagnetic energy towards a target. When that energy reaches a drone, it can potentially couple into its electronic systems through antennas, cables, sensors and other conductive pathways.

If the electromagnetic field is sufficiently strong and the target’s electronics are vulnerable, the exposure can interfere with electronic circuits.

Depending on the circumstances, the effects could include temporary disruption, communications failure, sensor malfunction, navigation problems, flight-control disruption or permanent damage to electronic components.

For a drone, the consequences could be significant as the aircraft’s ability to fly depends heavily on the uninterrupted operation of its electronic systems.

Unlike a kinetic interceptor, an HPM system does not necessarily need to physically strike the aircraft. That is the basic attraction of the technology as a counter-drone tool.

HPM could create a second market: protecting the electronics

The development of HPM weapons could also create a parallel requirement for technologies designed to protect military platforms from electromagnetic attacks.

If high-power microwave systems become part of the counter-drone arsenal, defence manufacturers may have to invest not only in offensive directed-energy capabilities but also in electromagnetic shielding, protected enclosures, specialised cabling, connectors, grounding systems and power-management technologies.

“The emergence of HPM and other directed-energy technologies could create a parallel requirement for electromagnetic protection across defence platforms,” Shah said.

He said naval vessels, sensors, communication systems and other electronics would increasingly need to maintain functionality in complex electromagnetic environments.

That could encourage greater focus on shielding, enclosure design, cable protection, grounding and system-level hardening during platform development.

For manufacturers, the challenge would be to integrate electromagnetic resilience into the overall architecture without compromising performance, maintainability or operational efficiency.

The engineering problem: protection comes at a cost

Protecting a platform from electromagnetic attack comes with its own engineering trade-offs.

Shielding and protection systems can add weight, consume space and affect power and thermal-management requirements-all of which can influence the cost and performance of a military platform.

“The biggest challenge is achieving electromagnetic protection without compromising the platform’s overall performance,” Shah said.

He said weight, available space, power requirements, thermal management and cost would all have to be considered together.

Protection, he added, cannot simply be added after a platform has already been designed. Instead, manufacturers would need to address electromagnetic resilience early through material selection, engineering and design optimisation.

That makes the opportunity more than simply developing an HPM emitter. It potentially extends into the materials and engineering systems used to make military platforms harder to disable.

Where could the money flow?

If HPM and other directed-energy systems eventually move towards operational deployment, the business opportunity may not be limited to companies developing the microwave systems themselves.

A wider supplier ecosystem could emerge around electromagnetic shielding materials, protected enclosures, specialised cabling and connectors, grounding solutions, power-management systems, thermal management and testing and validation capabilities.

“We believe that HPM capabilities could open up new business possibilities for Indian defence manufacturers in the areas of materials, components, and platform defence systems,” Shah said.

For Indian suppliers, this could create another layer of demand beneath headline directed-energy programmes.

The opportunity could be particularly relevant as defence platforms incorporate more sensors, communications equipment, automated controls and other electronics, increasing the number of systems that need to remain functional in contested electromagnetic environments.

It could also encourage greater collaboration between defence-platform manufacturers, technology companies, system integrators and research organisations.

India is building a wider HPM ecosystem

The SHIELD programme comes amid increasing interest among Indian defence companies in high-power microwave and directed-energy technologies.

In May 2026, Bengaluru-based Tonbo Imaging secured an Indian Navy contract under the ADITI 3.0 innovation framework for the integration and commissioning of a high-power microwave system for naval platforms.

Tonbo also markets its WaveStrike system as a directed-energy counter-drone capability.

The Navy contract should not, however, be interpreted as confirmation that the technology has already been inducted as an operational weapon. Further development, validation and acceptance would be required before such a system could be considered fully operational.

Separately, defence-industry reports in August 2026 said Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) had completed development of a microwave directed-energy prototype and was preparing for user trials. That reported status has not been independently confirmed through a comparable public BEL announcement and should therefore be treated cautiously.

Together, these efforts point towards a developing Indian ecosystem around electromagnetic and directed-energy technologies rather than a single DRDO programme.