MAVIS
Maneuvering Aerial Virtual Enemy Imitation System
India's indigenous long-range autonomous fixed-wing VTOL target drone — built for live AD missile firing practice, accuracy verification, and multi-drone swarm threat simulation.
LUNEBERG LENS
GPS + NavIC
A credible threat, on demand.
Conventional target drones are short-ranged and predictable. MAVIS flies advanced threat profiles at operationally realistic ranges up to 40 km, for up to an hour, and its mission can be re-written mid-flight — so the threat never flies the same line twice.
A passive Luneberg lens gives it a calibrated radar cross-section, so AD radars and missile seekers see it the way they would see a real incoming threat. Fly one, or fly several in a coordinated swarm to create genuine saturation scenarios.
What it does in the field.
- R1
Single-target AD missile firing
Flies precise autonomous profiles out to 40 km. Profile changeable mid-flight to produce unpredictable, non-linear paths that simulate genuine threat evasion during live missile engagement practice.
- R2
Multiple-drone swarm scenarios
Several MAVIS drones fly simultaneously in coordinated autonomous formation, creating true multi-target saturation to test the real engagement capacity and tracking channels of AD batteries.
- R3
Radar cross-section calibration
The Luneberg lens gives a precision-calibrated RCS, visible to AD radar and seeker systems at full operational range, for accurate missile-accuracy data collection and crew qualification.
What MAVIS delivers.
Fixed-Wing VTOL
Vertical take-off from any terrain, then efficient fixed-wing cruise for 40 km range at realistic target speeds. No runway required.
Autonomous flight
Full autonomous mission execution on proprietary in-house software, with mid-flight reprogramming for unpredictable threat simulation.
Multiple-drone swarm
Several drones in coordinated formation, each individually controllable, for war-like saturation training.
Luneberg lens RCS
Calibrated radar cross-section visible to AD radars at full range for realistic seeker lock and accuracy data.
Proprietary stack
100% in-house flight software with full swarm coordination. Zero third-party software dependency.
AES-256 encrypted link
Anti-jam, anti-intercept comms across the full 40 km range for live missile-range environments.
One platform, many roles.
Target Drone
Primary AD missile firing target role.
Swarm Operations
Coordinated multi-drone saturation.
Decoy Operations
RCS-calibrated decoy profiles.
Reconnaissance
Modular payload ISR configuration.
EW Support
Electronic warfare research role.
Radar Calibration
AD radar / sensor test target.
Crew Qualification
Battery crew training missions.
Force Multiplication
Scalable fleet operations.
Every line of code is ours.
- S1
Zero third-party software dependency
Developed ground-up by our own engineers. No external flight stack, no licensed libraries, complete IP ownership.
- S2
Full multi-drone swarm coordination
Autonomous formation hold, dynamic role allocation, real-time mesh coordination — no single point of failure.
- S3
Individual control within the swarm
Any single drone can be re-tasked in real time without disrupting the rest of the formation.
- S4
Mid-flight mission reprogramming
Waypoints, formations and flight parameters reconfigurable mid-flight for unpredictable threat paths.
Full specifications.
Everything below is the as-designed specification. Hand this page to an engineer.
| Platform Type | Fixed-Wing VTOL Hybrid |
| Operational Range | 40 KM |
| Endurance | 60 Minutes |
| Cruise Speed | 60–80 KM/H |
| Max Altitude | 500 M AGL |
| Launch / Recovery | VTOL — Zero Runway Required |
| Navigation | GPS + NavIC Dual Constellation |
| Flight Modes | Autonomous / Swarm / Mid-Flight Reprogrammable |
| Configuration | Multiple Simultaneous Drones |
| Coordination | Autonomous Peer-to-Peer Mesh |
| Individual Control | Yes — Per Drone within Swarm |
| Formation Hold | Yes — Autonomous |
| Payload | Luneberg Lens (Calibrated RCS) |
| Configuration | Fixed-Wing VTOL Hybrid |
| Wingspan | 1600 MM (Nominal) |
| Propulsion | Electric — Fixed-Wing + VTOL Rotors |
| Flight Software | 100% Proprietary In-House |
| Third-Party Dependency | NONE |
| Mid-Flight Changes | Yes — Real-Time Reprogrammable |
| IP Ownership | 100% Santa Aero Defence |
| Encryption | AES-256 |
| Range | 40 KM Line-of-Sight |
| Anti-Jam | Yes |
| Anti-Intercept | Yes — AES-256 Encrypted |
| Manufacturing | 100% In-House, Odisha India |
| Production Scale | Rapid Mass Production Capable |
| Supply Chain | Indigenous — No Foreign Dependency |
| Initiative | Atmanirbhar Bharat / Make in India |
Where MAVIS goes next.
MAVIS operational
AD target drone programme live with multi-drone swarm capability.
Swarm expansion
Enhanced multi-drone coordination and larger formations.
Kamikaze & loitering variants
Strike-capable derivatives built on the MAVIS airframe.
Maritime & counter-UAS
Naval target variants and counter-drone systems.
Autonomous battlefield networks
AI-driven collaborative drone networks for contested environments.