DH Interview | 'West Asia conflict has rewritten modern military doctrine with drones': Satyabrata Satapathy

In this backdrop, DH’s Mrityunjay Bose spoke to Satyabrata Satapathy, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of BonV Aero, one of the leading drone makers in India.

In a decade’s time, drones have revolutionised warfare. Two recent examples are Operation Sindoor undertaken by India against Pakistan post the Pahalgam attack and the ongoing United States-Israel coalition strikes against Iran and subsequent retaliation which has seriously affected West Asia. In both conflicts, drones played a major role alongside missiles. However, in the future, AI and drones will change the scenario completely.

In this backdrop, DH’s Mrityunjay Bose spoke to Odisha-based Satyabrata Satapathy, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of BonV Aero, one of the leading drone makers in India. A technocrat, Satya earned his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from SRM University, Chennai, and later completed his Master’s from BITS Pilani.

Satya worked on several groundbreaking projects, such as developing a nano-satellite launched with ISRO, creating an autonomous robot for DRDO that won a best innovation award, and participating in prestigious international competitions like the CanSat and Rover Challenge in the USA.

“The ongoing 2025–2026 conflict between the US-Israel coalition and Iran has fundamentally rewritten modern military doctrine. While traditional ballistic and cruise missiles played a major role, drones have emerged as the central pillar of asymmetric warfare,” Satya told DH in a an interview:

Following are the excerpts of the interview:

What is the drone industry in India like at this stage? What it would be like in five years from now.

Right now, the Indian drone industry is transitioning rapidly from nascent assembly operations to deep-tech, indigenous innovation. Startups in India are now engineering advanced aerial platforms for high-altitude logistics, AI-driven surveillance, and sophisticated defence applications under the Make in India framework. At BonV Aero, we have seen immense traction from the Indian Armed Forces for our heavy-lift platforms, proving that domestic players cannot just meet but exceed stringent military standards. Five years from now, we foresee India dominating the global low-altitude economy. Regulatory frameworks will mature to support widespread Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations, transforming commercial logistics, urban air mobility through eVTOLs, and disaster response.

Drones started becoming popular from 2015 onwards. What it holds for the future. In which sectors are drones being used in the country?

When drones gained mass popularity around 2015, they were largely viewed as consumer gadgets for photography or basic mapping. Today, that perception has completely flipped. Drones are now critical industrial and military infrastructure. In India, defence is one of the most aggressive adopters, using them for border surveillance, tactical strikes, and high-altitude logistics. Beyond defence, drones are revolutionizing agriculture through precision spraying and crop monitoring. The commercial logistics sector is increasingly adopting heavy-lift UAVs for middle-mile deliveries, especially in complex terrains, while disaster response teams rely on them to drop critical medical supplies in flood-hit or mountainous regions.

Looking to the future, the technology holds limitless potential. We are moving toward full AI autonomy, where human operators supervise rather than manually pilot.

If we look at Operation Sindoor, we have seen a new age of drone warfare in Asia.

Operation Sindoor in May 2025 was an absolute watershed moment that ushered in the new age of drone warfare in Asia. In response to the tragic Pahalgam terror attack, the Indian Armed Forces executed precise, non-escalatory strikes using a highly coordinated drone ecosystem against terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK. We witnessed the seamless integration of First-Person View (FPV) drones for real-time targeting, loitering munitions acting as kamikaze units, and advanced ISR platforms mapping the battlefield. Even when Pakistan retaliated with its own wave of drones targeting Indian military installations, India’s layered counter-drone grid successfully intercepted the threats.

The current war involving the US-Israel coalition and Iran saw a lot of use of drones along with traditional missiles.

The ongoing 2025–2026 conflict between the US-Israel coalition and Iran has fundamentally rewritten modern military doctrine. While traditional ballistic and cruise missiles played a major role, drones have emerged as the central pillar of asymmetric warfare. Iran’s strategy of launching massive, coordinated swarms of Shahed loitering munitions alongside traditional missiles was specifically designed to saturate and overwhelm highly advanced air defense systems like Patriot and THAAD. If you look at the economics of it, the defence systems are spending close to 80–200 dollars for every 1 dollar spent on drones by Iran! Even with state-of-the-art interception capabilities, stopping every single low-cost, low-flying drone in a mass wave of thousands is incredibly difficult and economically disproportionate. We also saw the US and Israel deploying their own advanced unmanned systems for deep-penetration surveillance and precision strikes.

Is warfare changing with drones?

Warfare is not just changing with drones, it has been irreversibly transformed. Historically, air superiority was dictated by who had the most advanced, expensive fighter jets and the deepest pockets. Today, low-cost, autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles have democratized AirPower, creating a terrifying asymmetric advantage. A cheap loitering munition can now disable a multi-million-dollar tank or bypass billion-dollar radar networks. We are moving away from massive, concentrated force deployments toward distributed, networked, and attritional warfare. Drones offer persistent surveillance, immediate precision strike capabilities, and zero risk to human pilots. Furthermore, the speed of engagement has accelerated exponentially; sensor-to-shooter timelines are now measured in seconds, not hours.

Do you foresee AI and drones combined in the days to come in peaceful as well as military uses?

Absolutely. In fact, the convergence of AI and drones is already the defining technological leap of this decade. We call it putting ‘Brains in the Sky’.

In military operations, this combination is vital. As electronic warfare and signal jamming become standard, a split-second can be the difference between success and failure. In such a dire situation, the onboard AI can help drones navigate, identify targets, and execute missions entirely autonomously, even when completely cut off from their ground operators. In peaceful and commercial applications, the impact is equally profound: the onboard AI can process complex sensor data in real-time. It can allow drones to safely navigate treacherous terrain, detect sudden weather shifts, and dynamically reroute to avoid obstacles. Whether dropping medical supplies in a storm or executing precision defense missions, AI-driven autonomy will guarantee efficiency, safety, and mission success.