Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu at the PanIIT Summit
Vijayawada: The chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu, on Saturday inaugurated Agni Kalash, a combat drone developed by Hyderabad-based AKSI Aerospace Group, at the PanIIT Andhra Pradesh Summit 2026. The drone has been built by DronAgni Combat Drones Pvt Ltd, a group company of AKSI Aerospace.
Naidu visited the group's pavilion at the summit on October 3 and spoke with company officials. The group managing director, Pankaj Akula, briefed him on the drone and on the company's work in aerospace and unmanned systems.
According to the company, Agni Kalash is a long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed for precision strike missions. It has a range of up to 300 km and a top speed of up to 350 kmph. The company also listed a modular payload architecture, autonomous navigation, the ability to operate where GPS and GNSS signals are denied, a networked and swarm-capable design, and a low-observable airframe. These specifications are as given by the company.
The company said the drone uses indigenous technologies in critical systems, including the engine, avionics, battery systems and airframe. Its modular design is meant to support different mission configurations and payloads.
Akula said the growing role of unmanned systems in modern warfare had shown why India needs to own critical technologies and manufacturing capabilities.
"India's self-reliance in defence will depend not only on deploying drones, but also on our ability to develop and manufacture critical technologies locally. Agni Kalash is part of our effort to build advanced unmanned systems in India, with greater control over the technologies that go into them," he said.
The company said Agni Kalash is part of its effort to build sovereign capabilities across the unmanned systems value chain rather than only assemble complete drones. AKSI Aerospace has nine group companies, each focused on an area such as propulsion, batteries and battery management systems, avionics, autopilots, motors or composite structures. It is developing UAVs for defence, agriculture, cargo, surveillance and industrial uses.
The group runs a manufacturing facility of 1 lakh sq ft in Hyderabad, according to the company. In August 2025, it announced an order worth ₹85 crore from the Latvia-based drone maker FIXAR for drone subsystems. At the time, it also announced a $5 million (about ₹44 crore) investment over two years to expand its Hyderabad facility, then described as 50,000 sq ft. In January 2026, the civil aviation secretary, Samir Kumar Sinha, unveiled the group's Skyshipper cargo drone at Wings India 2026 in Hyderabad. Akula has also said that drone components made by the company were used by the Indian armed forces during Operation Sindoor.
The PanIIT Andhra Pradesh Summit was organized by the state government with PanIIT Alumni India, the umbrella body of more than five lakh alumni of all 23 Indian Institutes of Technology. Held under the state's Swarnandhra Vision 2047 framework, it brought together technology leaders, industry representatives, policymakers, entrepreneurs and members of the IIT ecosystem. Its focus areas included deeptech, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum computing, and defence and aerospace.
