There is a moment in every modern conflict when the sky itself becomes the threat. Not a jet, not a missile — a swarm of small, cheap drones, flying low, talking to each other on radio links you cannot see, and slipping past defences built for a different kind of war. Stopping that swarm is not about shooting harder. It is about seeing first — hearing the signals, finding the drones, and taking away their ability to fly together. That is the invisible battle a Hyderabad company has spent nearly two decades learning to win.
The company is Unistring Tech Solutions, known as UTS. Founded in 2007 by veteran DRDO scientists Dr Nagendra Babu Samineni and K Srinivasa Raju, and today a subsidiary of Zen Technologies, UTS builds the electronic warfare, radar and simulator systems that let India’s armed forces own the electromagnetic spectrum — the unseen battlefield where drone wars are actually decided.
See the unseen, stop the unwanted
UTS describes its mission in four words: see the unseen, stop the unwanted. The idea runs through everything it builds. Its systems give commanders real-time spectrum awareness — the ability to detect, classify and locate emitters, including the low-probability-of-intercept signals that modern drones and tactical radios use to hide. When you can see the signals, the company says, you can act on them with precision instead of wasting high-value interceptors on low-cost threats.
That philosophy shapes its counter-drone work. UTS builds vehicle-based anti-drone detection and jamming systems that combine RF detection, radar detection and RF jamming into one integrated shield. Deployed close to the tactical edge, the systems detect, track and counter unauthorised drones in dynamic operational environments — the kind of fast-moving situations where a fixed installation is too slow and too far away. Mobility and speed of deployment, the company says, matter as much as detection range.
Behind the shield sits deep radar expertise. UTS builds AESA radar platforms, including a non-rotating AESA radar for counter-drone applications that won the company the FTCCI Excellence Award in Aerospace & Defence in July 2025. Its engineers also build DRFM-based target emulators, advanced spectrum monitoring tools and simulators that let operators train against realistic, evolving threat environments without depending on foreign tools.
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Proven where it counts
UTS is not a newcomer making promises. The company says its technologies played a critical role during Operation Sindoor, strengthening India’s electronic warfare and counter-drone capabilities at a decisive moment. It was a key private-sector partner in DRDO’s D4 counter-drone programme, entrusted with supplying key RF and digital subsystems and working with DRDO through the full lifecycle of the system, from design to delivery.
That track record has made UTS a trusted name across India’s defence establishment. The company says its systems are trusted by DRDO, BEL and ECIL, and by the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force. It has grown to a 500-strong organisation, and through its holding company Zen Technologies, it became the first Indian company to export a fully indigenised counter-drone system.
The work keeps accelerating. In March 2025, UTS secured a Rs 10.3 crore development contract from DRDO for a compact electronic warfare system, to be completed within ten months. A month later, it won a Rs 22.98 crore strategic contract from a leading defence public sector undertaking for the supply and integration of advanced sub-systems for strategic defence platforms, drawing on its core expertise in electronic warfare, radar and counter-drone technologies.
Divert and defeat
On 30 October 2026, UTS unveiled its latest advancement at T-Hub in Hyderabad under the banner “Divert & Defeat” — a name that captures the company’s whole approach. The idea is not only to knock drones out of the sky, but to divert them, defeat their coordination and deny them the spectrum they depend on. In a world where swarms are designed to overwhelm traditional defences through sheer numbers, that layered answer — radar sensing, electronic warfare and counter-drone response working as one — is exactly what modern air defence demands.
From two DRDO scientists with a vision of self-reliance to a 500-strong team building systems trusted by the armed forces, Unistring Tech Solutions has quietly become one of the companies standing between India and the drone swarm. The threats in the sky will keep evolving. So will the shield.
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