IAF Dronathon 2026 will bring domestic drone and counter drone manufacturers to the Pokhran range in Jaisalmer next week, an event the Indian Air Force says is built around letting industry exhibit its capabilities and advancements. The service confirmed the exercise on Monday.

Static displays and live demonstrations both feature on the programme, running from 14 to 16 September.

Inside IAF Dronathon 2026

The venue puts the event on an established Air Force range in the western sector, where live evaluation work is routine. Manufacturers get a chance to show hardware and then watch it perform, rather than present specifications on paper alone.

The Air Force wants stakeholders to see emerging drone and counter drone technologies demonstrated live, not just described on paper.

Focus areas span four domains

Surveillance and reconnaissance heads the list of themes the Air Force has set for the event, alongside autonomous operations, swarm technologies and electronic warfare. Each of these areas has grown in weight for Indian military planners since drones moved from a supporting role to a central one in several recent conflicts.

Assessing combat effectiveness

Beyond the display, the purpose is functional: identify contemporary solutions and evaluate combat effectiveness, giving the Air Force a working read on which drone systems are close to induction.

An Aatmanirbhar Bharat push for the drone sector

Dronathon 2026 aligns with the national vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat, and the Air Force frames it as a way to bolster the indigenous defence ecosystem by integrating industry experts, start-ups and innovators, casting the event as an ecosystem builder rather than a one-off procurement trial.

The service describes its goal in familiar terms: a technologically advanced, indigenous and future ready force built for a fast-changing operational environment.

Part of a broader unmanned systems drive

The Air Force has leaned into counter drone work through the year, including the Counter-UAS exercise Rotor Clap III, flown by helicopter units in Rajasthan to validate how quickly rotary-wing gunships can detect and engage hostile drones over open desert terrain.

Dronathon 2026 sits alongside that effort, aimed less at operating drones than at building the industrial base that supplies them. That base has been the subject of its own recent push, with domestic firms in line for one of the country's largest ever unmanned systems procurement orders, and Air Force leadership has spoken publicly about accelerating the induction of unmanned systems as part of that same drive.

More on the Pokhran range, drawn from the Air Force's own institutional profile, sits at the Indian Air Force site, and the counter drone research feeding events like this one is tracked on DRDO's own pages. No specific exhibiting firms have been named ahead of the event.