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IAF Chief Warns Drones Now Claw Like Air Power Demands Total Coordination Across Services
Politics
Published on 15 May 2026
Friendly fire lessons are reshaping how drones are tracked
Air Chief Marshal A P Singh said unmanned aerial systems are no longer “eyes in the sky” but an extension of air power—“claws in the sky”—driving decentralised, autonomous warfare. He stressed complete domain awareness and “total coordination” among the three services sharing the same airspace, citing the March 1 Kuwait fratricide involving F-15E Strike Eagles. Singh also urged faster innovation in counter-UAS, highlighting Operation Sindoor’s integrated command and control, and the need for scalable, low-cost defences.
- Singh called UAS an extension of air power, “claws in the sky”
- He warned that lack of domain awareness can enable fratricide
- He cited March 1 Kuwait incident where three F-15Es went down
- Counter-UAS is a “cat and mouse” technology race that must keep up
- Operation Sindoor success was linked to coordination and IACCS as nerve centre
- Singh argued counter-UAS must be low-cost to scale against thousands
Read the full story at The Economic Times
This summarization was done by Beige for a story published on 
The Economic Times