Equipping India for the GPS-denied era – a deep tech playbook

National security often hinges on the unspectacular, as defence strategy experts like to say — systems quietly built for reliability in less-than-ideal conditions. In the coming decade, military and critical civil infrastructure will face a new challenge: dependence on global navigation satellite systems, a convenience rapidly becoming a liability.

Recent conflicts and technological disruptions have demonstrated that drone warfare is shifting rapidly towards an era in which GPS signals can no longer be taken for granted. India, with its long and complicated borders, is not immune to this trend.

Meeting this challenge requires a marriage of business pragmatism and engineering depth. In our own portfolio, Unmannd, a defence technology startup, is betting that serial execution and technical expertise will be the foundation for building India’s lineup of GPS-independent drones and aerial systems. The company’s approach offers insight into how Indian entrepreneurs might move up the defense innovation value chain.

The founding figures at Unmannd bring a distinct combination of experience. Chief Executive, Yeshwanth Reddy, has built and sold technology not once, but twice before. His previous venture, Aereo, is a significant provider in India’s drone-based surveying market, with close to $7 million in revenues for FY24.

His subsequent company, F-drones in Singapore, focused on maritime logistics, attracting investment from shipping industry leaders such as Eastern Pacific Shipping and the Schulte Group. Reddy’s experience reflects a history of creating viable businesses in heavily regulated markets — a crucible where product reliability and compliance are as important as technological novelty.

This operational resilience comes with technical depth. The Unmannd team, including Co-Founder Hemaditya Prasad, draws from specialized backgrounds in aerospace avionics and mission-critical embedded systems. The company is building vehicles and autonomy stacks that push well beyond manual piloting, employing edge AI, reinforcement learning, and digital twin validation.

Firsthand experience with real-world deployments ensures that the technology is grounded in the demands of end users, rather than the parameters of a laboratory.

Such capabilities have practical payoff. Unmannd’s Titan drone is expected to be commercially available in the first quarter of 2026. This rapid development cycle signals not only technical competence but also an organizational ability to navigate the defense procurement process — a journey often fraught with regulatory and contractual complexity.

Unmannd’s playbook fits a broader context. The global military drone market is projected to expand from $13.4 billion in 2023 to $30.5 billion in 2035, driven by heightened demand for autonomous and resilient aerial systems.

As adversaries invest in electronic warfare capabilities that can jam or spoof GPS signals, countries are looking for indigenous systems built for reliability in contested environments. The ‘GPS-denied’ future is not an abstract threat; it reflects real, observed vulnerabilities in battlefields from Eastern Europe to the Middle East.

Yet, technology alone is insufficient. Defence buyers worldwide demand that innovation be matched by credibility and resilience. In conservative sectors, vendor relationships are built on years of delivery and responsiveness, not just algorithms or circuit boards. Unmannd’s commercial acumen — honed through its team’s years of experience selling into risk-averse industries — may offer as much of an edge as its technical credentials.

For India to operate at the frontier of defence technology, serial entrepreneurship and technical skill must not be seen as separate virtues. Where they intersect, deep-tech startups like Unmannd are demonstrating that it is possible to build capabilities for the GPS-denied era — serving both an immediate strategic need at home and opening doors to global opportunities. The path is neither simple nor assured, but the playbook is taking shape.