Throttle delivers fiber‑optic tethered drones to India
Throttle Aerospace reportedly delivered OFC‑based tethered drones to the Indian Armed Forces for secure, persistent surveillance, the site notes reported. The story highlights tethered systems’ uninterrupted power and high‑bandwidth secure links, and raises the aerodynamic need to address tether drag and oscillation. The delivery is cited as an example of secure surveillance platforms crossing into operational service.
Throttle Aerospace, based in Bengaluru, publicly announced the delivery on March 14, 2026 (idrw.org) and lists defence-focused platforms such as Nimble‑I and the L‑series on its product pages (throttle.aero). The shipment comes as India’s Army floated a Request for Information on September 29, 2025 for 5,000 tethered‑drone systems specifying operating altitudes up to 18,000 ft, environmental ranges of −50°C to +45°C, and a minimum 9‑hour tethered endurance (imrmedia.in). Throttle Aerospace operates as a defence‑licensed manufacturer under RattanIndia/NeoSky ownership, with NeoSky/RattanIndia reported as holding major stakes and stating Bengaluru as the manufacturing location (neosky.co.in). Industry descriptions of OFC tethers show hybrid composite cables that combine single‑mode optical fiber, copper power conductors, aramid/Kevlar strength members and TPU/LSZH sheaths deployed from controlled reels for tension management and retraction (holightoptic.com). Academic work has quantified the core aerodynamic trade‑offs: a 2025 arXiv study modeled cable selection and showed tether mass, electrical resistance and aerodynamic drag jointly determine available payload and required thrust (arxiv.org), while a 2025 MDPI review flagged tether dynamics, entanglement risk and tether‑induced forces as primary design constraints for TUAV systems (mdpi.com). Field and engineering reports cite tether‑related motion as non‑trivial—oscillation amplitudes reaching 15–20% of flight height and lateral displacements exceeding ~3 m at ~15 km/h winds—and recommend active reel/tension control, trajectory shaping and model‑based tether observers as mitigation techniques (xray.greyb.com). Operational demand has been driven by combat use of fiber‑optic UAVs since mid‑2024 in the Russia–Ukraine theatre, a development chronicled by the Atlantic Council and industry outlets documenting large‑scale testing and rapid adoption through 2024–25 (atlanticcouncil.org).
