The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Drone Federation of India (DFI) on 28 August 2026 at its headquarters in New Delhi to protect critical infrastructure from rogue drones. As the nodal agency for aerial threats, CISF guards more than 370 units including airports, nuclear plants, space centres and oil refineries. The pact will connect the force with Indian drone startups to build drone security systems, anti-drone deployments and forensic tools, and to develop its Behror training centre as a national hub.
What Did CISF and DFI Agree in New Delhi?
A Memorandum of Understanding, or MoU, is a written agreement between two parties that lists what they will do together. It is not always a binding contract, but it sets the goals, roles and plan for cooperation. In this case, the MoU was signed at the CISF headquarters in New Delhi on 28 August 2026.
C D Naik, Deputy Inspector General (Principal) of the Maharana Pratap Recruit Training Centre (MPRTC) at Behror, signed on behalf of CISF. Smit Shah, President of DFI, signed on behalf of the federation. The ceremony took place in the presence of Praveer Ranjan, Director General of CISF, along with Sudhir Kumar, Additional Director General (North), and Vijay Prakash, Additional Director General (Headquarters). Representatives from DFI included Director Shirin Joshi, Associate Director Shivangi Prakash and Chief of Staff Sama Sehgal.
Under the pact, DFI will create structured links between CISF and Indian drone startups and technology firms. The aim is to support training, applied research and readiness for real operations. The work will follow the guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is the nodal ministry for internal security and for CISF.
| Area of Cooperation | What It Will Do |
|---|---|
| Scaling counter-drone deployment | Prepare Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), deployment plans and pilot projects for CISF guarded sites |
| Forensics and analysis | Build common methods and Indian made tools to study rogue drones after an incident |
| Joint drills and red teaming | Hold controlled practice attacks to test detection, tracking, response and recovery |
| Training and capacity building | Design new modules, hackathons and challenge programmes on rules, operations and threat cases |
What Is the Central Industrial Security Force?
CISF stands for the Central Industrial Security Force. It is a Central Armed Police Force under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Its motto is Protection and Security. Its headquarters is at the CGO Complex on Lodhi Road in New Delhi. It is headed by a Director General from the Indian Police Service. The present Director General is Praveer Ranjan.
The force was raised on 10 March 1969 under the Central Industrial Security Force Act, 1968. It started with a strength of about 2,800 personnel in three battalions. Its first posting was at the Fertilizer Corporation of India plant at Trombay in Maharashtra on 1 November 1969. The idea for such a force came after a major fire at the Heavy Engineering Corporation plant at Ranchi and the report of the Mukherjee Commission, which called for a central force to guard public industries.
The role of CISF has grown far beyond factory gates. An amendment in 1983 made it an armed force of the Union. Later amendments in 1989, 1999 and 2009 gave it the duty to protect employees at its sites, to offer paid security advice, and to guard private companies and joint ventures. It can now also be posted outside India if the central government orders it.
Today CISF has an active strength of about 1.9 lakh personnel, with sanctioned strength raised from 2 lakh to 2.2 lakh in August 2025. It guards more than 370 units across 25 states and five Union Territories. These include 71 civil airports, the Delhi Metro, Parliament complex, government ministries, heritage sites, seaports, steel plants, coal mines, thermal power plants, oil and gas units, 18 nuclear installations and 16 space establishments. It is the only Central Armed Police Force with a dedicated Fire Service Wing of about 9,700 personnel for fire safety at 114 units.
What Is the Drone Federation of India?
DFI stands for the Drone Federation of India. It is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry led body. It speaks for the drone and counter-drone industry in India. It was founded in 2017 and is based in the Safdarjung Airport area in New Delhi. Its President is Smit Shah. The federation has more than 1,000 members, including startups, manufacturers, service providers and training schools.
A drone, also called an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), is an aircraft that flies without a pilot on board. It is controlled from the ground or flies on its own using software and satellite signals. Drones are now used for mapping, farming, delivery, filming, surveys and inspections. The same low cost and easy use also make them a risk when they enter restricted airspace or carry harmful loads.
DFI works to build a safe and large drone industry in India. It holds talks with ministries, regulators and companies to shape simple and growth friendly rules. It supports Indian research, testing, skill training and manufacturing. Its stated goal is to help India become a global drone hub with strong home grown technology.
Why Is Protection Against Aerial Threats Urgent?
Critical infrastructure means the buildings, plants and networks that keep the country running. If they stop, public life, the economy and national security suffer. For CISF, this includes airports, metro rail, nuclear power stations, space centres, oil refineries, ports, steel and power plants. An aerial threat means an attack or intrusion from the sky. In recent years, small rogue drones have become the most common form of such a threat.
Rogue drones are cheap, small and hard to spot on normal radar. They can take photos of restricted areas, block airport runways, smuggle drugs and arms, or drop explosives. They fly low and can be launched from a rooftop or field. Finding them in time and stopping them without harm to people on the ground has become a daily task for guards at sensitive sites.
The lesson became sharp after Operation Sindoor in May 2025, when drone attacks along the Pakistan border tested Indian defences. CISF drew on its experience at sensitive border posts and vital plants to scale up its response. With help from the Indian Air Force, it has trained more than 7,120 personnel in drone flying, aerial surveillance, mapping and neutralising hostile drones. About 3,000 personnel have completed formal drone and anti-drone protocols, and around 80 CISF units now use drones for monitoring, threat detection and practice. The force has also formed a team of domain experts to bring new tools into daily duty.
How Will the Behror Centre of Excellence Work?
The centrepiece of the MoU is the plan to build the Recruit Training Centre (RTC) at Behror in Rajasthan into a Centre of Excellence for Drone and Counter-Drone Systems. Behror houses the Maharana Pratap RTC, which already hosts drone and anti-drone training. The Ministry of Home Affairs has also cleared the setting up of a Remote Pilot Training Organisation (RPTO) there to teach drone flying and counter-drone response under one roof.
A Centre of Excellence means a single campus where training, testing and research happen together. At Behror, CISF staff will train with real equipment from Indian startups. New Standard Operating Procedures, or SOPs, will be written for each type of site, such as what to do when a blip appears near an airport or a refinery. Pilot projects will test counter-drone units at selected plants before wider use.
The joint work will also focus on forensics. Forensics in this context means the study of a captured or crashed drone to learn who flew it, where it came from and what it carried. The partners will build Indian made tools for this analysis and for post-incident review. Controlled red teaming will add realism. In red teaming, one team plays the intruder and flies rogue drones, while CISF teams must detect, track, respond and escalate as per the drill. Student hackathons and challenge programmes will bring fresh ideas on operations, rules and threat scenarios into the force.
What Are India’s Drone Rules and Anti-Drone Systems?
India controls civilian drone use through the Drone Rules, 2021. They were notified on 25 August 2021 by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and replaced the earlier Unmanned Aircraft System Rules. The rules work on trust, self-certification and online monitoring. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) runs the Digital Sky platform, a single window for registration, licences and flight permissions.
Every drone, except nano models and some research models, needs a Type Certificate for its design and a Unique Identification Number (UIN) for each unit. Pilots need a Remote Pilot Licence, which is valid for ten years, unless they fly only nano drones or micro drones for non-commercial use. The airspace map on Digital Sky divides the sky into three zones based on risk.
| Zone | Meaning | Permission Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Green zone | Low risk airspace up to 400 feet, not marked as yellow or red | No prior permission needed, but pilot must check Digital Sky before flight |
| Yellow zone | Controlled airspace near airports and other sensitive areas | Prior permission from air traffic control needed |
| Red zone | No drone areas, such as near strategic sites | Only central government can allow flight, state agencies can mark temporary red zones up to 96 hours |
The CISF DFI pact works within this legal frame. Detection and action against rule breakers at guarded sites needs both sensors and lawful response steps. That is where Indian anti-drone systems come in.
The best known Indian system is the D4 system, which stands for Detect, Deter and Destroy. It was developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and is built by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a public sector electronics firm headquartered in Bengaluru. Four DRDO labs built it together. The Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) at Bengaluru made the radar. The Defence Electronics Research Laboratory (DLRL) at Hyderabad made the radio frequency detection and jamming unit. The Centre for High Energy Systems and Sciences (CHESS) at Hyderabad made the laser weapon. The Instruments Research and Development Establishment (IRDE) at Dehradun made the day and night cameras.
D4 first finds a drone with radar and radio sensors, confirms it with cameras, then stops it in two ways. Soft kill jams the control link and satellite navigation signals so the drone loses direction. Hard kill uses a laser beam to damage the drone in flight. The system can spot micro drones up to about 4 km away and use its laser within about 1 km. It works in static and vehicle mounted forms and gives a full round view with a single command centre. The Indian Navy ordered the naval version on 31 August 2021, and the system has guarded Republic Day and Independence Day events.
The Way Forward
The MoU points to a clear next phase of testing and scale up. CISF will use industry drones in realistic drills at Behror to find weak spots in its sensors, staff response and site procedures. Startup systems that clear these trials can move to pilot deployment at airports, nuclear sites, space centres and refineries. Common SOPs and forensic methods will then be applied across all 370 plus units, so each site follows the same alert and action chain.
This work fits into the wider CISF modernisation plan for 2026 to 2030. The plan lists 76 items worth ₹819 crore, including drone training, an integrated cyber security lab, a dedicated data centre and stronger digital networks. CISF is also setting up dedicated drone training schools at Hyderabad, Bhilai and Behror, with academic support planned with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology at Pune. For the country, the direction is toward home grown sensors and jammers linked into a grid, so that detection at one site can warn others in time.
Key Takeaways
- The CISF DFI MoU was signed on 28 August 2026 in New Delhi to strengthen drone security for critical infrastructure.
- CISF stands for the Central Industrial Security Force, raised on 10 March 1969 under the CISF Act, 1968, with headquarters in New Delhi and motto Protection and Security.
- DFI stands for the Drone Federation of India, a not-for-profit industry body founded in 2017 and led by President Smit Shah.
- CISF is the nodal agency for aerial threats and guards more than 370 units, including airports, nuclear plants, space centres and refineries.
- The pact will develop RTC Behror into a Centre of Excellence for Drone and Counter-Drone Systems with SOPs, forensics, red teaming and training modules.
- India’s Drone Rules, 2021 use the Digital Sky platform with green, yellow and red zones, while DRDO’s D4 system offers Detect, Deter and Destroy cover up to 4 km.
