Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace (FWDA) has announced the successful testing of FWD YAMA, India’s first autonomous swarm interceptor engineered for counter-unmanned aerial systems (counter-UAS), air defence and Suppression of Enemy Air Defence (SEAD) missions. The milestone represents a major advancement in India’s indigenous air defence capabilities.
Designed to counter the growing threat of low-cost drone swarms, FWD YAMA introduces a scalable and economically sustainable approach to aerial interception. As global conflicts increasingly demonstrate the vulnerability of high-value missile systems to inexpensive drones, the need for cost-effective autonomous solutions has become critical. With a projected per-unit cost of approximately $10,000, YAMA is engineered to enable precision interception at significantly lower cost compared to traditional missile-based systems.
Powered by FWDA’s proprietary autonomy stack, the interceptor integrates artificial intelligence, precision engagement capability, swarm coordination and network-centric architecture. Once cued by radar or surveillance systems, the platform can autonomously detect, classify, prioritise, track and engage aerial threats without human intervention. Its system architecture combines radar-based cueing, multi-sensor data fusion, electro-optical tracking and autonomous engagement logic to ensure high-accuracy interception.
Suhas Tejaskanda, Founder and CEO of Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace, stated that recent global conflicts underscore the urgent need for resilient and scalable anti-drone systems. “Autonomous interception must be economically viable and operationally robust in contested environments,” he said. “FWD YAMA addresses this requirement while strengthening India’s sovereign defence capabilities.”
Engineered for performance in GPS-denied and communication-contested environments, including under electronic warfare conditions, YAMA supports coordinated swarm deployment. Multiple interceptors can autonomously allocate targets and execute cooperative engagements. The platform is capable of neutralising threats as small as micro-drones while retaining scalability against larger unmanned systems.
FWDA confirmed that YAMA is designed for integration with its Kaalabhairav UAV series, enabling air-to-air defensive operations and extended engagement ranges. The architecture also supports SEAD missions, allowing autonomous detection and neutralisation of hostile air defence nodes.
Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Bengaluru, Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace focuses on AI-driven warfare systems and autonomous combat aircraft developed and manufactured in India, advancing national self-reliance in next-generation aerospace technologies.
