The Indian Army has issued a request for information for multi-layer mesh screens that would add a passive final barrier around sensitive buildings in forward areas exposed to small drones and unmanned aerial systems.
How the proposed screens are designed
The reported requirement describes structures approximately 37 metres long and 20 metres wide, with three spaced layers of mesh. The layers are intended to slow, dissipate energy from and progressively arrest an incoming drone before it reaches the protected building.
The outer layer is also expected to include camouflage and concealment features. That detail shows the system is not being treated simply as a net: the Army wants a physical barrier that is difficult to identify from the air and that does not create an obvious signature around an important site.
Why passive protection still matters
Active counter-UAS systems such as radar, electronic warfare, jammers, lasers and anti-aircraft weapons can be highly capable, but they may be saturated, degraded by terrain or unavailable at every location. A passive barrier does not need to detect a target or maintain a radio link, so it can provide a final layer when other defences are bypassed.
The trade-off is that mesh screens protect a defined structure rather than a wide area. They also add construction, maintenance and access requirements, and they must be designed so that they do not interfere with legitimate aircraft, emergency response or the site's normal logistics.
A lesson in layered defence
The Indian requirement illustrates a broader change in counter-drone thinking. Protection is increasingly built as a sequence: detect the aircraft, identify it, disrupt or defeat it, and then reduce the consequences if it still reaches the target. Low-cost physical measures can be valuable when they complement rather than replace active systems.
For engineers, the hard questions will include how the mesh handles different approach angles, payloads, weather and repeated impacts. For commanders, the measure of success is whether it reduces vulnerability without creating a new operational burden around the building it is meant to protect.
The last layer can be deliberately simple
India's mesh-screen requirement is a reminder that counter-drone defence is not only a contest of sensors and software. A carefully designed passive barrier can buy time and reduce damage when a small drone gets through the active layers.
Sources
Ministry of Defence India, Unmanned Airspace, The New Indian Express report
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