- Indian Army opens lab built to expose hidden drone vulnerabilities.
- Chinese-origin chips face heavier scrutiny under new army protocols.
- AASHVAST technicians hunt hidden passwords buried inside drone control systems.
The Indian Army has opened a new laboratory in New Delhi designed to inspect military drones for hidden software flaws and unauthorized parts.
The Assessment and Analysis of Electronic Systems Hardware for Vulnerabilities and Security Threats (AASHVAST) facility checks whether a drone’s components truly match what its documentation claims, flagging cases where parts appear to have been swapped in.
Investigators will pay particular attention to circuitry and chips that may have originated from Chinese suppliers rather than approved manufacturers listed in procurement records.
Hardware checks probe the drone’s supply chain
According to Indian officials, even minor deviations in hardware markings or circuit layouts can trigger closer scrutiny of a drone’s supply chain.
Technicians search each onboard controller and camera unit for concealed passwords, secret command pathways, and embedded encryption keys that could grant unauthorized access.
The team also checks for altered flight-control limits and tools that might allow someone to seize remote command of the aircraft.
They further confirm whether each drone will install only updates issued by its original manufacturer, closing off a common route for tampering.
The team also measures how well a drone’s navigation holds up when exposed to jamming or spoofing signals meant to mislead it.
The entire process occurs without an internet connection, and no data from the tested drone can be copied to external systems.
Examination also proceeds without altering the drone’s own software, so nothing is written back onto the hardware at any stage.
This offline design suggests an intent to prevent classified information from leaving army custody or falling into the wrong hands.
Once vulnerabilities are found, they are ranked by severity and gathered into a single written report.
That document lets the technician who tested the drone and the officer who approves it read identical information before signing off.
QuickPay Tech’s software backs a wider army effort
AASHVAST runs on a software suite built by QuickPay Tech, a Noida-based UAV technology firm.
The suite is designed to flag altered code, unexpected components, and configuration changes that would otherwise go unnoticed during routine checks.
The laboratory sits inside the army’s technical directorate, a body responsible for the technical evaluation and repair of a wide range of army vehicles and electronic systems.
General Dhiraj Seth, the army chief, formally inaugurated the site at Delhi Cantonment, marking its opening for wider use across the force.
Army officials say the initiative should improve the cyber defenses of sensitive platforms while supporting electronics manufactured within the country’s defense sector.
However, analysts say that verifying hardware origin is only one part of ensuring a drone’s overall airworthiness for operational deployment in the field.
Whether such scrutiny will meaningfully reduce reliance on foreign-sourced components across India’s drone programs remains uncertain.
