— By Krittika Sharma
Stronger defence collaborations between the United States and India are driving startups to offer cutting-edge technology for enhanced military coordination between the two countries.
Through the INDUS-X initiative, startups, like Airbotix and AIKairos – both winners of an INDUS-X Joint IMPACT Challenge, are developing advanced underwater communication technologies to improve naval interoperability. Their solutions enable submarines, ships and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) from different countries to communicate seamlessly.
Launched in 2023, the India-United States Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) facilitates partnerships between US and Indian defence companies, startups, incubators, accelerators, investors, and universities to develop critical capabilities for the militaries of both countries.
In the February 2025 US-India joint leaders’ statement, President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi reinforced their commitment to the INDUS-X initiative.
The leaders also announced the launch of INDUS Innovation, a new innovation bridge modelled after the successful INDUS-X platform that will advance US-India industry and academic partnerships and foster investments in space, energy, and other emerging technologies to maintain US and India leadership in innovation and to meet the needs of the 21st century.
The Joint IMPACT Challenge was launched by the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit and India’s Innovations for Defence Excellence scheme to identify cutting-edge solutions for warfighter needs.
Both AIKairos and Airbotix are winners of the first edition of the challenge, focusing their solutions on undersea communications.
“Interoperability is crucial for joint operations,” says Rashi Mehrotra, co-founder of AIKairos, a Gurgaon-based research and development startup. By enabling secure underwater communication, these startups help the United States, and its allies, to operate more effectively in the Indo-Pacific, reinforcing security through global cooperation.
Detecting submarines
AIKairos’s solutions include “the development of hardware and software, both made indigenously, for the detection of underwater threats,” explains Mehrotra. “The key component in such technology is a receiver [to receive and decipher signals]. We have the upper hand because we have developed our own receiver.”
The company’s underwater communication system allows submarines from different countries to communicate seamlessly. This is especially important for the Quad countries – the United States, India, Japan and Australia.
“The primary goal was to ensure interoperability between these countries so that submarines can talk to each other [regarding threats],” says Mehrotra.
“Our technology ensures that different naval forces can operate together more effectively, which is crucial for security in the Indo-Pacific region.”
The unpredictable nature of the ocean makes underwater defence particularly challenging. AIKairos’s solution helps overcome these challenges by detecting ultra-quiet submarines, which are otherwise difficult to track.
“The transmitter is able to detect any moving object of any shape. By transmitting different waves underwater, they generate a signal that our device can detect. If we can detect that wave, we can get an amplitude, the signal and the frequency. My AVS can detect the frequency of that target, which may be a submarine belonging to a hostile country in the Indian Ocean region.”
Mehrotra highlights how INDUS-X provided the perfect platform to develop and deploy their underwater communication technology. “It’s an incredible opportunity for startups like ours to bring high-tech solutions to the defence sector.”
Communicating underseas
Airbotix, founded by Rajesh Gandhi, is developing underwater communication technology that allows submarines, ships and AUVs to communicate seamlessly, even in challenging conditions. The start-up’s goal is to improve interoperability between naval forces by enabling seamless communication between submarines, ships and autonomous underwater vehicles.
“Our technology ensures submarines and ships can communicate effectively, even in the most challenging underwater environments,” says Gandhi. The team has built both the hardware and software in-house, creating a system that integrates sensors, amplifiers and data acquisition components. “We designed everything ourselves and are testing our own algorithms in simulation,” he adds.
The Indian Navy will evaluate the technology once its development stages are complete.
National security priorities include underwater defence. Airbotix’s communication device will enhance the US defence ecosystem by improving intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. “Since we designed this in-house, we have the flexibility to adapt it for various platforms, including submarines and autonomous underwater vehicles,” Gandhi explains.
“Our device enables secure underwater communication by transmitting encrypted signals through acoustic waves,” says Gandhi. “Error correction techniques ensure that even with interference, messages are received accurately.” Few companies in the world market offer such technology, and India currently does not have its own product in this domain, he says.
“The problem related to effective underwater communication has been recognized by both the United States and India, and we are confident that our solution will support the defence ecosystem of both nations,” says Gandhi. The project opens opportunities for collaboration between Indian and US startups, allowing them to leverage each other’s strengths. “Working together will help us develop world-class products and showcase our innovations on a global platform.”
[Note: The article was originally published on SPAN Magazine. It has not been edited except for the India Sentinels house style.]
