After eight failed attempts to clear the military’s selection process, Suhas Tejaskanda found another way to get involved with the Indian Army.

The founder of Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace spent over two years studying drone deployments along India’s border with China, tracking where imported systems fell short, and what a better, more localised alternative could look like.

What he built was a medium-altitude, long-endurance combat drone, designed for Indian terrain and operating constraints.

“We saw clear operational gaps in the systems being used,” said the CEO.

But when the Indian military didn’t buy it, Tejaskanda went looking for customers elsewhere. Today, about 95% of Flying Wedge’s orders come from overseas. That’s not because India isn’t buying drones. If anything, it’s buying more than ever.

Earlier in April, the army inductedEconomic TimesKamikaze drone: Indian Army gets hundreds of suicide UAVs from Gujarat firm that can survive at -35 degrees hundreds of kamikaze (self-destructing) drones, made by Gujarat-based InsideFPV, under a Rs 10 crore emergency-procurement contract. The month before, the government clearedReutersIndia clears military purchases worth $25 billion to buy aircraft, Russian S-400 missile systems military procurements, including drones, worth $25 billion.

The timing seems perfect because drones have rewritten the rules of modern warfare. In Ukraine, remotely controlled aerial vehicles are now used at scale. And a few thousand kilometres closer home, in Iran, drones are filling the void left by fighter jets.

Investors, too, seem eager to get in on India’s push for military modernisation. In 2025, Noida-based drone maker Raphe Mphibr raisedThe Economic TimesDrone maker Raphe mPhibr secures $100 mn to expand aircraft design & manufacturing in India $100 million in one of the largest private-funding rounds the sector has seen so far. The Ken recently wroteThe KenIf VCs won’t fund defence, India’s wealth and asset managers will about how asset-management firm 360 One’s Rs 1,000 crore defence fund was backing the “eyes and brains” of modern warfare.

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