Swarm Drones and Indian Academia

Air power is one of the most important elements of a military campaign and therefore, all countries strive to achieve Air Supremacy. The world has witnessed the influence of Air Power in wars, including Air Superiority of manned aircraft, in the last century. However, this paradigm of Air Superiority only through manned aircraft, and noticeably Fighter aircraft, may be challenged in this century through Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Future wars may be fought with a combination of both manned and unmanned aircraft. Days are not far-off when many countries would develop Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles that could be seen cruising in the skies moving intercontinentally and taking on precision targets. One of the reasons behind the exponential growth of the UAVs is their applicability for defence purposes. In civil sector too, Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) UAVs have wide applications across sectors in areas like transportation, aerial recee, calamities, photography, hobbies, etc. The Urban Air Mobility (UAM), colloquially called as Unmanned Air Taxis, for transportation of people and cargo is seen as a new possibility in multimode transportation in future.