Claws in the sky: Decoding India’s massive drone buys

In October, Russia fielded the newest technological breakthrough of its four-year war with Ukraine—the Filin (Eurasian eagle-owl), a ground-launched jet-powered drone which can fly the Delhi-Mumbai air distance, around 1,200 kilometers, at a speed of 800 kmph. The Filin flies at twice the speed of propeller-driven drones like the Shahed-136 which Russia also uses, more importantly, the satellite-steered munition costs roughly USD 50,000, a fraction of a USD 2 million Tomahawk cruise missile. This means Russia can build thousands of Filins to generate ‘precision mass’ – where precision attacks can be carried out in large numbers at lower costs than…