The Indian Air Force (IAF) has launched a unique contest whose winners could bag a defence contract for swarm drones worth upto Rs 100 crore.

The Mehar Baba Swarm Drone Competition, open to Indian agencies, was launched ahead of Air Force Day in October and named after a maverick air force pilot, Air Commodore Mehar Singh.

Drone swarms are masses of tiny drones flying like a flock of birds that can perform coordinated tasks because they are controlled by an operator. In February, a record 1,218 drones formed the Olympic rings in the sky at the opening of the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Global militaries see swarms as a cost-effective way to detect enemy targets and strike them with small weapon loads. Unlike expensive combat jets, drones can be 3D printed in their thousands, guaranteeing a plentiful supply of smart weapons that can overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers.

The IAF, however, is looking at peaceful applications of the swarm, to deliver relief supplies in disaster-hit regions, especially in remote and far-flung areas.

It wants a single operator in a portable ground control unit to be able to control up to 50 drones that can fly 100 kilometres, carry a payload of one kilogram spend upto an hour on the target. A swarm of such drones could, for instance, take relief supplies to flood-affected areas like those seen recently in Kerala, allowing the IAF choppers for tasks like rescuing people.

The contest, for which entries have to be submitted by November 14, has three phases. In phase 1, presentations will be decided by December 28. During phase 2, 10 drones will have to fly 10 km at a range of 50 km, at an altitude of 3,300 ft with GPS. In phase 3, 50 drones will have to fly as a swarm for 100 km without GPS. Developers will get their development cost reimbursed up to Rs 25 lakh for phase 1 and Rs 10 crore for phase 2.Up to three winners will get Rs 10 lakh as prize, followed by a co-production opportunity with a Base Repair Depot (BRD).

The acquisition bypasses the conventional lengthy procurement process of issuing Requests for Proposals by using a newly introduced clause in the Defence Procurement Procedure 2016, which covers products developed by BRDs under the Buy Indian (designed, developed and manufactured) category, under the delegated powers of the Service Headquarters. The winners will be announced on Kargil Vijay Diwas (July 26) next year.

This is also the first time the armed forces will directly place a significant defence order on an external agency after an open contest. This model, if successful, has the potential to upend the traditional model of acquiring high technology from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and defence public sector undertakings a process frequently marked by long procurement and development cycles. "This contest brings a direct participation of the startup and MSME ecosystems to address the demands of the armed forces and to grow the Indian defence industry," says Anshuman Tripathi, a consultant working with the IAF on the contest. A military application cannot be far away. A drone swarm that delivers relief supplies could also be programmed to drop ordnance or strike at enemy aircraft.