40,000 drones a month: Ex-Army chief Naravane lays out scale India needs for future wars

Former Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane has said India must be able to rapidly adapt its industrial capacity during conflict, including producing large numbers of drones, as warfare continues to evolve. He said no two wars are the same and that future wars often unfold in unexpected ways.

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"The greatest lesson is that no two wars are the same," Naravane said while speaking to India Today, when asked about lessons from ongoing conflicts between Iran and the US and Russia and Ukraine.

"But unfortunately, you can draw lessons and experience only from the last war that you have fought. But the next one always brings a surprise. So, the side that is able to adapt faster to that changing environment is the one that will prevail, and for that, mental flexibility is required." 

The former chief said that flexibility is required at the level of the nation to be able to quickly transform its processes and its production facilities to meet those new challenges. 

Drawing a parallel with the Second World War, he referred to how industrial capacity was repurposed for military needs. "In the Second World War, for example, there's a book called Freedom's Forge. (It is about) How the industrial complex, which was making cars, suddenly started making tanks and aircraft."

"That industrial capacity which was built up. Similarly, today, it is drones. Every second factory in India should be able to make drones, and we should be able to churn out 40,000 drones a month. That is how you will change and adapt faster to these emerging trends in technology in forms of warfare that will decide the outcome."

In the 2025 India–Pakistan war, drones were used more extensively, marking what many defence analysts called the first true "drone war" between the two countries.

Both sides deployed large numbers of unmanned systems - India used imported and indigenous loitering munitions like Israeli Harop and Polish Warmate drones to strike Pakistani air‑defense radars and military installations, while Pakistan launched hundreds of drones, including Turkish Bayraktar TB2‑type systems, across multiple locations from Leh to Sir Creek. Almost all Pakistani drones were shot down by Indian air defenses. 

These drones were not just for surveillance but for kinetic strikes and probing defenses. India reported over 790 drone incursions along the western border in 2025 alone, and Pakistan claimed it intercepted scores of Indian drones targeting key cities such as Lahore and Karachi.