Swadeshi Empresa Private Limited secured an Indian Air Force order for its firefighting robot by June 30, 2026. The firm won the iDEX SPRINT challenge after the Defence Innovation Organisation opened proposals in July 2022. This robot, tested at Exercise Vayu Shakti 2026, helps operators work safely from outside hazard zones.

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About one in nine proposals made it. When the Defence Innovation Organisation opened the SPRINT challenges in July 2022, they drew 1,106 proposals. Under the DISC-7 round, 113 were declared winners in the SPRINT category and five in SPRINT-PRIME, 118 in all. One of the 113 was a firefighting robot from Swadeshi Empresa Private Limited in Changodar, near Ahmedabad. Four years later, iDEX's procurement-orders list, as on 30 June 2026, puts the Made in India FF Bot first.

The route from problem statement to air base deployment runs through distinct stages, and the public record covers them unevenly.

The problem statement and selection

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the SPRINT challenges in New Delhi on 18 July 2022, with the aim of bringing at least 75 indigenous technologies into service across fields including autonomous and unmanned systems. DISC winners could receive grants of up to ₹1.5 crore, while the SPRINT-PRIME ceiling was ₹10 crore. Of the 1,106 proposals, 118 won funding and roughly eight in nine did not advance. For those that won, the grant paid for building a prototype, not a production line.

The company and the prototype

iDEX began in 2018 and had worked with more than 650 startups and MSMEs by November 2025. Swadeshi Empresa is not a new software startup: it has worked in fire suppression and water-mist systems for about four decades and has built firefighting robots since 2017. Under iDEX, the FF Bot was tested in debris and fire scenarios, on uneven terrain and in low visibility, including at Exercise Vayu Shakti 2026 in Pokhran in February, with operators controlling it from outside the hazard radius. The robot has built-in cooling, a stainless steel body and six powered wheels with suspension, and can drag a charged hose or tow up to 5 tonnes.

According to an official statement issued in January 2026, the FF Bot was the first iDEX SPRINT case under DISC-7 to receive Acceptance of Necessity (AoN), in 2023. An AoN is the formal approval required before a requirement can move to commercial procurement. It took between six and seventeen months after the challenges opened in July 2022.

The order

As on 30 June 2026, iDEX's procurement-orders list puts the FF Bot first. Swadeshi Empresa says its Indian Air Force order, reported in January 2026 as covering 80 units, was placed through emergency procurement with a 12-month delivery schedule, and that it was delivered ahead of time, in 11 months. The latest emergency procurement tranche, EP-6, was approved by the Defence Acquisition Council on 16 May 2025 with powers of about ₹40,000 crore. Each contract under it is capped at ₹300 crore, 200 times a ₹1.5 crore prototype grant, and must be signed within 40 days and delivered within a year.

Where startups stall

The Comptroller and Auditor General's Report No. 28 of 2025, tabled in Parliament on 18 December 2025, audited indigenisation contracts for the year ended March 2023. It found delays across stages, including 30 per cent of supply orders for indigenised development being foreclosed. Since then, iDEX has added larger grants for mature projects: the ADITI scheme, launched in 2024, offers up to ₹25 crore per project.

Set side by side, the FF Bot's dates run from the challenge release in July 2022 to Acceptance of Necessity in 2023, an Air Force order reported in January 2026, and top-ranking on iDEX's procurement-orders list as of 30 June 2026.

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