When Nazi Germany launched V-1 flying bombs in 1944 across the English Channel, towards Britain, it fundamentally challenged the prevalent economics of warfare. Inexpensive, unmanned, and crude, these ?buzz bombs” were technologically inferior to the fighter aircraft dominating the skies during World War II.

Eighty-two years later, relatively cheaper unmanned systems are once again rewriting the economics of warfare. Whether in Ukraine, the Red Sea, or West Asia, drones costing a few thousand dollars are increasingly threatening military assets worth millions. In several cases, countries are deploying expensive air defence systems to neutralise these low-cost attacks.

The debate is no longer merely about whether drones can complement fighter jets. The larger question is economic: how should India allocate its limited defence resources at a juncture when cheaper, unmanned technologies are challenging the business of warfare itself”

India’s geographical location, with two nuclear-armed neighbours, places it in a formidable situation. In the face of China’s industrial capacity, an equal amount of military spending might not be the best option. “India has disputed borders with two adversaries with strong air forces, and combat air power is part of their military strategy. They will deploy their air forces against us,” says Air Marshal Diptendu Choudhury (Retd), an air power scholar.

The challenge for India would be to get maximum military advantage for every rupee spent, without overcommitting to platforms that could become too expensive to sustain in heavily contested conflicts.

The cheaper long-range vectors and drones preserve the most expensive and irreplaceable asset’the trained pilot. “The (recent global) conflicts have demonstrated that surface-launched systems can achieve kill rates against aircraft that make conventional air operations near the front line prohibitively expensive,” says former Indian Air Force (IAF) Vice Chief Air Marshal Anil Khosla (retired). The capabilities of fighter jets, as of today, surpass those of a drone. Moreover, the human-in-the-loop is crucial for certain combat decisions. “Drone technology and software algorithms will need to go through rigorous testing to reach that maturity of robust, consistent decision making,” says Dipesh Gupta, Managing Director, VEDA Aeronautics.