Union Home Minister Calls for Hi-Tech Solutions to Tackle Border Threats

Focus on digital border monitoring, smart surveillance systems, and integrated security infrastructure to enhance national security and rapid threat response.

Table of Contents

Context

Emerging challenges driven by advanced technology must be countered with equally advanced technological solutions

Emerging Technology-Driven Threats on the J&K Border

UAV-Based Weapon and Narcotics Drop: Small drones are increasingly used to drop arms, ammunition, explosives and drugs across the border, bypassing traditional fencing and patrols.
Encrypted Communications & Tech-Savvy Terror Modules: Terror groups are leveraging encrypted apps, satellite phones, and GPS navigation, making interception and attribution harder, as flagged in multiple security analyses.
Hybrid Warfare Tactics: Adversaries combine kinetic threats (infiltration, launch pads) with non-kinetic tools—disinformation, cyber support, and drone reconnaissance—to stretch security forces.
Terrain Exploitation: Rivers, ravines, foggy plains and urban proximity in Jammu sector enable low-altitude drone ingress and quick payload delivery.

Way Forward: Strengthening Hi-Tech Border Security

Indigenous Counter-Drone Ecosystem: Accelerate Make-in-India solutions—AI-enabled detection, swarm-countermeasures, directed-energy weapons—through DRDO-industry-startup collaboration.
AI-Driven Fusion Centers: Create real-time fusion hubs combining radar, EO/IR feeds, acoustic sensors, and intelligence inputs for faster threat classification.
Layered Airspace Security: Adopt multi-layered defence: detection (long/short range), soft-kill (jamming, takeover), hard-kill (interceptors), and post-event forensics.
Regional & Local Engagement: Strengthen community reporting networks in border villages; incentivise information on suspicious drone activity.
Continuous Training & Doctrine Update: Regular red-teaming and drills to adapt tactics as adversaries innovate; update SOPs for hybrid threats.

Measures Taken by the Government & Security Forces

● Counter-Drone Systems: Deployment of anti-drone radars, RF jammers, and kinetic interceptors at vulnerable stretches; integration with BSF command-and-control for rapid response.

● Smart Border Management: Expansion of CIBMS (Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System)—sensors, thermal imagers, ground surveillance radars, and AI-assisted analytics.

● Enhanced Intelligence & Operations: Improved multi-agency intelligence sharing; proactive operations such as ‘Operation Sindoor’, which reportedly destroyed enemy posts and terror launch pads across the border.

● Capacity Building & Welfare: Upgradation of training for drone detection, night operations; welfare measures and infrastructure upgrades for frontline personnel to sustain vigilance.

● Legal & Policy Steps: Tighter controls on commercial drone usage, geofencing near borders, and coordination with civil aviation authorities.