India's homegrown Iron Dome makes a Pak-crushing debut

INDIA thwarted over 600 drone attacks in last six days, and how! While the Russian-made S-400 air defence system was given the credit initially, it has been the indigenously developed 'Iron Dome' by DRDO which proved to be a game-changer in effectively neutralising the drone swarms launched by Pakistan in response to India's precision strike on the terror infrastructure there.

- HEMANT KUMAR ROUT @ Bhubaneswar

The system was developed by the premier defence agency in a record two years' time and proved its battle worthiness with aplomb. "If the iron dome system of Israel thwarted rocket attacks by Hamas in Gaza and Houthis in Yemen, it was the advanced drone detect, deter and destroy system deployed by India that neutralised all aerial threats from Pakistan with remarkable precision," a defence official told The New Indian Express.

The counter-drone system developed by DRDO labs, including Bengaluru-based Electronics and Radar Development Establishment, Hyderabad-based Defence Electronics Research Laboratory, Centre for High Energy Systems and Sciences and Dehradun-based Instruments Research and Development Establishment, successfully detected the incoming drones within no time and destroyed the aerial threats.

Defence sources said the newly developed ground-based invisible shield, which was inducted in the three services - Indian Army, Navy and Air Force in March, has been instrumental in preventing Pakistani drones, many of Turkish and Chinese origin, from penetrating Indian airspace and causing damage in real-time combat scenario since May 7.