On 3 October 2026, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu inaugurated Agni Kalash, a long-range combat drone developed by Hyderabad-based AKSI Aerospace Group, at the PanIIT Andhra Pradesh Summit 2026 in Vijayawada. The aircraft was developed by DronAgni Combat Drones Pvt Ltd, a group company of AKSI Aerospace — the drone maker’s first move from agriculture, industry and cargo UAVs into the defence arena. The unveiling was reported by Outlook India, Mint and Moneycontrol.
300 km, 350 kmph — and no GPS needed
According to the company, Agni Kalash is designed for long-range precision-strike missions with a range of up to 300 km and a top speed of up to 350 kmph. It is built around a modular payload architecture, so mission-specific payloads and configurations can be swapped for different operations. AKSI says the platform carries autonomous navigation and can operate in GPS/GNSS-denied environments — the kind of contested airspace where satellite signals are jammed or spoofed. The design is networked and swarm-capable, and the company describes a low-observable airframe intended to improve survivability. What was displayed at the summit was an exhibition model: a conventional fixed-wing configuration with a swept wing and rear-mounted propulsion.
Own the stack, not just the airframe
The more interesting story is what goes inside it. AKSI Aerospace says Agni Kalash incorporates indigenous technologies across its engine, avionics, battery systems and airframe — the subsystems that typically keep Indian UAV makers dependent on imports. The group runs nine specialised companies covering propulsion systems, batteries and battery-management systems, avionics, autopilots, motors and composite structures, and lists a 1,00,000 sq ft manufacturing facility with 100+ employees and an annualised capacity of 1,12,000 units on its website.
Group managing director and chief technologist Pankaj Akula put the philosophy bluntly: strategic capability, he said, “cannot be limited to assembling complete platforms” and will “increasingly depend on who owns and controls the technologies and components that go into those platforms.” The group’s stated ambition is to make Andhra Pradesh a hub for drones, unmanned systems, aircraft components, propulsion, batteries, autopilots, advanced composites and precision aerospace manufacturing.
Caveats, honestly stated
Every figure here is company-stated: AKSI has not disclosed precise specifications, endurance, warhead capacity, navigation method or terminal guidance for Agni Kalash — the exhibition model alone does not settle those questions. Agni Kalash is a concept unveiled at a summit, not a flown and tested platform with a declared induction timeline, and the jump from agri and cargo drones to a 300-km combat aircraft is a real engineering leap that remains to be proven in flight.
Still, a Hyderabad group that builds its own propulsion, batteries, autopilots and composites — and is now pointing that stack at a long-range combat UAV — is exactly the kind of vertically-integrated bet India’s defence drone story needs.
