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Suhas Tejaskanda, founder of drone manufacturing and services startup Flying Wedge Defense & Aerospace, is proud of the fact that in just two years his drone has protected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and partnered with the Special Protection Group and L&T. I'm proud. “Killer unmanned aerial vehicles are the most lethal weapons developed to keep the Indian Defense Forces combat-ready,” Tejaskanda said. Mr. Tejaskanda said he is also working on AI-based next-generation future warfare systems to reduce the number of casualties among soldiers, to his name he has three patents and a patent for semiconductor and integrated circuit technology in India. He claims to be the first person to apply for a patent.
Since independence, India has always relied on foreign companies such as Boeing and Airbus for its aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles, and Tejaskanda wanted to eliminate this dependence of Indians on foreign countries. “India did not have a single DGCA-type flying object approved for airworthiness. So we started working on building the technology. On November 3, 2023, the Ministry of Civil Aviation, DGCA , approved the airworthiness of our unmanned aircraft system, making it the first and only type-certified indigenous unmanned aircraft technology in India,” he says.
The startup now aims to offer India's only made-in-India agricultural drones to farmers and says, “The application of drones in the civil sector is growing much faster than the defense sector. The popularity of agricultural drones. is increasing,” he said. He pointed out that in partnership with Tescom, the startup has built the first ever unmanned aircraft production factory. Tejaskanda aims to significantly reduce dependence on imports of components. Furthermore, FWDA has set up a base in Florida, USA, and plans to expand to European and African countries this year.
The type certification was the most significant achievement in providing indigenous flying objects to Indian businesses. On the financial front, he aims to achieve break-even within the next four months and is already in a good position with an order backlog of Rs 106 crore for FY24-25.
Fact sheet:
Number of employees: 52 people
Number of co-founders: 3
