He is one of the faces of India’s new defense industry. A former Indian Air Force officer and head of defense activities at NeoSky India Limited, Arun Dikshit leads the Unmanned Systems division of the RattanIndia Group, at the forefront of autonomous technologies, drones and counter‑drone systems. In New Delhi, he personally presented the group’s capabilities to the Moroccan military delegation led by Brigadier General Abdellah Athmani, head of the 2nd Bureau of the Royal Armed Forces (FAR). In this exclusive interview, he unpacks Morocco’s ambitions and outlines a Morocco–India cooperation now aiming squarely at tomorrow’s defense technologies.

• You present the meeting with the Moroccan delegation as an opportunity to “bridge continents through defense innovation.” What significance do you attach to this meeting, and what prospects do you see for deepening defense cooperation between Morocco and India?

At the outset, on behalf of RattanIndia Group’s Unmanned Vertical — NeoSky India Limited, let me express our profound honour to be able to present an in-depth briefing on our Unmanned Systems before the high-level Military Delegation from the Kingdom of Morocco, led by H.E. Brig Gen Abdellah Athmani, Chief of the 2nd Bureau, Moroccan Royal Armed Forces.
This meeting builds on a relationship that predates defense entirely — India and Morocco established ties in 1957, anchored for decades by agriculture and phosphates. The real inflection point came in 2015, when King Mohammed VI and PM Modi elevated ties to a Strategic Partnership spanning cybersecurity, space and defense. That partnership now has an industrial spine: the September 2025 MoU, Tata Advanced Systems’ Berrechid plant delivering WhAP 8×8 vehicles by early 2026, and the inaugural
Joint Defence Committee meeting in September 2026. For NeoSky India Ltd, part of the RattanIndia Group, this meeting is a chance to translate that government-to-government momentum into systems Morocco can actually fly, dive and train on — with unmanned systems as the natural next chapter after armored vehicles.

• You describe Morocco as an emerging “Smart Power.” What makes Morocco particularly interesting today from a defense technology and industrial perspective?

Morocco has made a deliberate choice. Its 2026 finance bill commits roughly $17.1 billion to defense, weighted toward qualitative modernization and a domestic industrial base rather than volume procurement. It has strong preconditions — geography, diplomatic capital, a young technical workforce, and FTAs with the EU, US and AfCFTA — and is now actively legislating to convert that potential into manufacturing capacity rather than remaining a pure buyer. Crucially, Morocco isn’t building only for itself: it has signaled export ambitions toward the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa and is diversifying suppliers beyond traditional Western partners toward China, Turkey, Brazil and India. That combination of sovereign ambition, export mindset and partner diversification is exactly where NeoSky’s indigenous, field-tested unmanned and counter-UAS ecosystem can add lasting value.

• NeoSky presented its unmanned systems during the meeting. What are the main technological developments shaping the UAV and autonomous systems sector, and what opportunities could they offer Morocco?

Five shifts stand out. First, true autonomy: our SWAT ISR platform self-launches from a charging dock on alert and flies with an onboard edge-AI stack that classifies targets and holds track even with a degraded link. Second, payload versatility — TAVAS (ISR) and DOPO (Mapping) swap day/night, mapping or comms payloads within minutes. Third, jam resistance — our fiber-optic FPV drone is unjammable by conventional RF jammers. Fourth, logistics autonomy — our Tech Partner ecosystem VTOL Logistics
Delivery Drone carries up to 50% of its own weight and has been proven above 5,000m in the Himalayas at -15°C. Fifth, standoff endurance — NEOSNAP delivers 15–20km range, 60–90 minutes’ endurance and EW-resilient links for contested frontiers.
UNCTAD projects the global drone market growing from $19B (2020) to $102B by 2030. For Morocco, these map directly onto Sahara border surveillance, Strait of Gibraltar monitoring, and Atlantic coastal patrol — and our Himalayan cold/altitude testing transfers directly to the High Atlas.

• You highlighted the importance of data-centric interoperability. How is this transforming modern warfare, and what should countries like Morocco prioritize?

Modern operations are won on the speed and fidelity of the information loop. A detection is nearly worthless unless it reaches a command center, fuses with other feeds, and produces a decision in seconds — which is why our platforms run embedded AI/ML that pre-processes and prioritizes data at the edge. Persistence matters too: our Tech Partner Tethered Drone system holds station up to 10 hours with 30x EO-IR zoom, powered continuously through the tether. UNCTAD data shows why these matter — the AI-Autonomy market could reach $1.5 trillion and IoT $4.4 trillion by 2030. For Morocco, I’d prioritize three things: a common data architecture fusing air, maritime and ground sensors regardless of origin; resilient, jam-resistant communications; and indigenous training and sustainment capacity, since interoperability is organizational as much as technical.

• Given Morocco’s position between the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, Europe and Africa, what role could unmanned systems play in maritime and border surveillance?

Morocco’s geography is an unmanned-systems problem waiting for an unmanned-systems solution — the Gibraltar chokepoint, an Atlantic coastline to Dakhla, and a long desert frontier. No navy can persistently patrol that with manned assets alone. Our Tech Partner ROV line — TUNA, SAGARA and the 450m-rated TSROV — supports hull inspection, mine countermeasures and subsea-infrastructure protection, while our Autonomous Surface Vehicles (i-Boat Alpha, with Sea Serpent coming) handle persistent coastal patrol; the Indian Navy has already placed its $5.2 million order for these very ROVs. A Tethered Drone over a harbour or border fence adds persistent overwatch, NEOSNAP watches the wider approach, and our Logistics Delivery Drone can resupply remote coastal or border outposts. Layered together, this gives genuine multi-domain coverage of ports, the Strait and the Atlantic seaboard, including Dakhla and Nador.

• Beyond equipment procurement, what industrial and technological partnerships — local manufacturing, tech transfer, R&D, skills — could create the greatest value?

The Berrechid plant is the template: not an assembly shed but a facility with a rising localization target, with India and Morocco
reportedly discussing extending it toward joint aircraft-component production. Because Morocco holds FTAs with the EU and US
and AfCFTA membership, anything co-produced there has a natural path to Western and African markets simultaneously. NeoSky already operates DGCA-certified assembly, R&D and testing infrastructure in India, holds a Defence Industrial Licence, and is PLI- qualified — a repeatable playbook, not a one-off product. Our Drone Centre of Excellence model, which already trains India’s armed forces, police and academic institutions, is the most exportable piece: standing up an equivalent CoE in Morocco would do
more for long-term self-reliance than any single contract.

• Following this interaction, what is your assessment of Morocco’s ambitions, and what are the next steps in Morocco–India cooperation?

Between it’s 2026 budget, the Berrechid plant, its own export-focused domestic drone industry, and active diplomacy, Morocco is assembling a serious, self-directed defense-industrial strategy. What struck us was how specific the Royal Armed Forces’ questions were — on endurance, payload swap times, jam resistance, cold and altitude performance — the hallmarks of a force evaluating real deployment scenarios. The near-term step is pilot deployments: structured evaluations of SWAT, TAVAS or
NEOSNAP in the Atlas foothills, the Atlantic coast or a port like Tanger Med or Dakhla Atlantique, alongside a Tethered Drone trial and a Logistics Delivery Drone resupply demonstration. Given Morocco’s long Atlantic coastline, we also see real scope for our Tech Partner ecosystem maritime portfolio — ROVs such as TUNA, SAGARA and the 450m-rated TSROV for ship-hull and underwater infrastructure inspection, mine countermeasures and harbour and vessel security, alongside the Autonomous Surface
Vehicles for persistent coastal patrol. In parallel, we’d explore extending the Berrechid model to an unmanned-systems line and standing up a Moroccan Drone Centre of Excellence.
With both the Indian and Moroccon governments committed ahead of the 70th anniversary of ties in 2027, and a Joint Defence Committee now providing a standing forum, we’re confident this relationship has runway for a lasting industrial partnership, not just a transaction. As Morocco and India head toward the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2027, we look forward to turning this dialogue into deployment — and to building a lasting industrial partnership between our two nations.