In an extraordinary experiment, two 20-year-old engineering students from BITS Pilani, Hyderabad, have developed India’s fastest combat drones—capable of speeds over 300 km/h—right from their hostel room.
Meet Jayant Khatri, a mechanical engineering student from Ajmer, and Sourya Choudhury, an electrical engineering student from Kolkata, who have stunned the defence establishment by creating high-speed, radar-evading kamikaze drones that the Indian Army has already purchased.
Surprised? Don’t be.
The startup behind this whirlwind innovation is Apollyon Dynamics, born just two months ago out of a shared passion for robotics and an ambitious vision to reduce India’s dependency on imported drones. Patriotic!
Armed only with off-the-shelf parts and boundless determination, the duo assembled the drones tailored to Indian terrain. They have proved that war-ready technology can indeed hatch between hostel bunk beds.
How Did the Drones Reach the Indian Army?
Their journey began with a series of cold emails to military officers, which paid off when a colonel finally responded and invited them to showcase a live demo in Chandigarh. The demonstration included bomb-dropping kamikaze and racing drones, the latter zipping at five times the speed of regular commercial drones.
The performance earned immediate appreciation and urgent orders, and the startup team quickly expanded to include six second-year students, now developing next-generation VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) and fixed-wing UAVs for enhanced mission versatility.
The Unique Points
What’s truly remarkable is not just the speed but the drones’ radar-resistant capability, making them practically invisible to enemy surveillance.
They can accurately deliver payloads up to 1 kilogram—essentially drones that are fast, stealthy, and practical.
And for those wondering if flying these drones requires a pilot’s license, fear not: the team offers hands-on training, capable of turning even drone novices into battlefield-ready operators.
In the words of Professor Sanket Goel of BITS Pilani, the achievement is extraordinary and a shining example of translating classroom innovation into frontline impact.
The university’s leadership endorsed this success as a testament to fostering homegrown deep-tech talent serving national security needs.
This reminds me of Bollywood’s “3 Idiots” that left us with a cautionary tale of a genius unrecognized. This real-life story of two students wielding cutting-edge drones from their dormitory delivers a thrilling plot twist—the Indian Army isn’t just listening; it’s buying.
