Indian army using birds of prey on border drones – The Irish Times

The Indian army plans to deploy eagles to track and destroy incoming drones transporting illicit cargo.

According to security officials in New Delhi, scores of drones have increasingly been infiltrating India’s border regions from neighbouring Pakistan over the last two years, variously carrying consignments of small arms and ammunition, drugs and fake currency, for delivery to armed insurgent groups.

India’s Border Security Force (BSF), which mans more than 3,000km of its western frontier with Pakistan during peacetime, recently revealed that the number of rogue drone landings in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat, had more than doubled since 2021.

BSF chief Pankaj Kumar Singh said last month that his force had shot down 17 Pakistani drones in 2022 alone.

Consequently, the army’s Remount Veterinary Corps in Meerut, 100km northeast of New Delhi, began training eagles and falcons some two years ago in an attempt to neutralise the aerial security threat.

It recently…