The Election Commission of India (ECI) has had an impeccable record of setting up election booths – sometimes even for a single voter – in line with its mottos ‘no voter to be left behind’ and ‘every vote counts’.

       But in the past few weeks, large-scale deletion of voters from Bihar’s draft electoral roll and allegations of voter fraud by leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi have put the election commission under scrutiny.

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       BEMOWO PISKIE, Poland—When U.S. Army Sgt. Sebastian Zouzoulas became an electronic-warfare specialist, his main focus was detecting remote-control roadside explosives. That was four years ago—a whole generation back on the battlefield.

       Today, his work is all about countering drones.

       Wars in Ukraine, the Middle East and across Africa are rewriting the rules of combat, with small, expendable and deadly drones increasingly critical. Militaries are sprinting to mass-produce the weapons and understand how best to fit them into fighting plans.

       As with every new weapon, a parallel race is on to thwart the new killers. Tacticians are grappling with how to defend against attacks massing dozens or hundreds of drones—without spending a fortune.

       “Whatever weapon system or munition you shoot at another adversary’s capability, it should be cheaper than what you’re shooting down," Army Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of U.S. land forces in Europe and Africa, recently told a gathering in Germany.

       Days after setting that challenge, Donahue was at an Army base in the Polish countryside, watching forces try to accomplish it at an exercise dubbed Project Flytrap 4.0.

       The fourth in a series of learn-by-doing events, the U.S.-British maneuvers brought together top brass, tech developers and soldiers like Zouzoulas. While troops staged engagements under drenching rain across the training grounds’ woods and fields, officers and officials filled a base auditorium to absorb lessons from drone combat in Ukraine and hear about the efforts of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to apply those lessons. Outside, soldiers and technicians exhibited some of the gear being tested.

       Stryker combat vehicles of the U.S. Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment during the exercise in Poland.U.S. Army Sgt. Sebastian Zouzoulas with a Terrestrial Layer System-Brigade Combat Team Manpack.

       NATO, which recently agreed to a spending increase, must ensure “that we are strong enough that we don’t have to fight because no one wants to take us on—because we’ve deterred them," said U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker, who attended Flytrap.

       The base where Poland hosted the exercise sits about 50 miles from both the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and the Polish city of Suwalki, which NATO fears that Russia considers a target because of its location between Kaliningrad and Moscow’s ally Belarus.

       Project Flytrap began in March with initial research and testing. It has grown in scale and ambition, with 4.0 the first time troops integrated counterdrone systems into battalion-level fighting. The engagement scenario involved several dozen troops attacking roughly 180 defenders in traditional land battles augmented with hundreds of drones, employed in the most realistic ways possible short of lethality, said organizers.

       To crank up intensity, they packed into the four-day exercise a relentless series of attacks, engagements and threats modeled on fighting in Ukraine and other conflicts.

       “It’s terrifying, watching the drones counter each other," said Zouzoulas of the scenes on Ukraine’s front lines.

       Adapting to that reality is Flytrap’s focus. Troops from the Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment, based in Germany, and the U.K.’s Royal Yorkshire Regiment used new devices—some developed in-house and some from private companies—to track, jam and shoot down drones sent at them by other U.S. forces.

       “It’s very much a cat-and-mouse game," said Army Lt. Col. Jeremy Medaris, a leader of the exercise. Drones keep adapting, “so then you have to have an adaptation as well" to counter them. Instead of seeking a single solution, he said, the emphasis is on developing a flexible and layered approach with a range of tools.

       Zouzoulas’s Terrestrial Layer System-Brigade Combat Team Manpack tackles the first stage in drone-fighting: spotting attackers. A sort of antenna, known as a Beast+, resembles a cactus growing out of a backpack, connected by wire to a screen the size of a smartphone. Designed for foot soldiers on the move, it scans for nearby drones’ radio signals and jams them.

       An even smaller wearable system resembles two big walkie-talkies. Dubbed Wingman and Pitbull, they also seek and jam drones’ radio signals.

       Using radio signals to spot air attacks began during World War II and until recently mostly focused on using radar to pinpoint large, fast objects. Engineers deliberately built systems to ignore small, low and slow objects to avoid alerts triggered by birds. Now engineers must be able to detect bird-size craft and ensure they are machines.

       Zouzoulas’s unit moves on Stryker fighting vehicles, on which technicians at Bemowo Piskie mounted for test use a variety of drone-detection gear able to scan 360 degrees over a wide radius. Engineers are experimenting with precision radar and optical or infrared sensors, starting with upgrades to existing systems.

       Specialists from the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Analysis Center have spent almost seven years creating software to boost the accuracy and range of widely used radar. It is used to target big guns deployed across the military, under the Common Remotely Operated Weapons System. Now it can detect drones at distances far greater than they might be targeted, said developers.

       Troops inside a Stryker can activate the system to shoot drones automatically with the vehicle’s roof-mounted M2 Browning .50-caliber machine gun. The system’s radar tracks the rounds it fires and adapts its targeting.

       To secure fixed positions like field headquarters, the Pentagon is also using acoustic sensors. Highly sensitive listening devices, trained to detect the sonic signatures of drone motors, don’t hunt for radio waves or visual contact. That is critical at night and against autonomous or fiber-optic guided drones, which don’t communicate with base by radio transceiver.

       One acoustic drone-warning system deployed during the Flytrap exercise creates what its developers at Norway’s Squarehead Technology call a safety bubble around troops, in which they can be nearly certain they will know when drones are approaching. A full array, about the size of a campfire, addresses one of the drone attacks’ most insidious features: dread. Ukrainian soldiers and civilians now live in almost constant fear of Russian drones, and Kyiv is working to inflict the same anxiety on Russian troops.

       “Knowing there are no drones around you allows you to be a human," said Squarehead’s vice president of defense, Knut Torbj？rn Moe. “You can do the things you need to do, like go to the bathroom or sleep or do other soldier work."

       Once drones are detected, neutralizing them at low cost is the next hurdle. A natural response for soldiers is to shoot at them with their personal rifles, but hitting a drone is much harder than hitting a bird. Troops at Flytrap improved their odds with computerized targeting equipment from the Israeli technology company Smart Shooter mounted on U.S. Army standard-issue M4 rifles.

       The fire-control system consists of a high-tech sight that is slightly larger than a big telescopic scope and a replacement trigger. The shooter aims at a drone and pulls the trigger, but bullets only fire when the system has calculated that a hit is likely.

       Soldiers at Flytrap also tested an array of point-and-shoot jammers that resemble oversize laser guns from a science-fiction movie. Most emit strong radio signals that disrupt a drone’s operation.

       Bigger threats, such as drone swarms or attacks on armored vehicles, need a bigger response. That is what the San Francisco startup Mara aims to tackle with what it calls “ubiquitous antiswarm" technology, which detects incoming drones and autonomously launches compact interceptors. The company is a finalist in a continuing Army competition seeking innovative tech solutions to a range of battlefield problems.

       Chief Executive Daniel Kofman, adjusting an antenna array on a Stryker, said he aims for “one-to-one cost with the drone coming at us" using inexpensive hardware and what he called “novel AI." A full system, with 48 interceptors, costs “less than a new truck," he said, without specifying what kind of truck.

       Once troops in an equipped vehicle activate their system, it seeks and shoots down attacks without human input, Kofman said. The equipment is designed to withstand jamming and guard against fully autonomous drones, like fiber-guided ones, freeing troops to focus on their mission—not drones.

       “That’s the whole point of our system," Kofman said.

       Write to Daniel Michaels at Dan.Michaels@wsj.com

       US President Donald Trump is using the threat of stiff tariffs to try to peel India away from Russia, as he attempts to boost pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

       But decades of close economic, political and military relations between New Delhi and Moscow mean Trump faces a challenge in persuading Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to drop a partnership that has survived great geopolitical turmoil.

       In recent days, Trump has blasted India for its heavy reliance on Russian oil imports, as well as its longstanding purchases of Russian military equipment. On Wednesday, the president slapped India with an additional tariff of 25% on its exports to the U.S.—doubling the existing 25% duty that went into effect earlier this month—as punishment for its continued purchasing of Russian oil.

       Despite tariffs that could inflict real damage on the Indian economy, Modi has stood firm in the face of rising American pressure—a sign of how important relations with Russia are for the South Asian giant.

       India’s foreign ministry called the penalty “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable" and promised that India will “take all actions necessary to protect its national interest." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier in the week that “sovereign countries should have and do have the right to choose their own trading partners."

       On Friday, Modi wrote on X that he had a “good and detailed conversation with my friend President Putin."

       “I thanked him for sharing the latest developments on Ukraine," the prime minister wrote, adding that the leaders had “reaffirmed our commitment to further deepen the India-Russia Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership." He said he expected Putin to visit India later this year.

       Since the Cold War, Russia has been one of India’s most constant partners in a relationship anchored by arms deals, economic cooperation and diplomatic support for New Delhi as it faces off with regional rivals China and Pakistan. For its part, Moscow drew close to India after tensions grew in the 1960s between the Soviet Union and Beijing.

       In the decades that followed, Russia extended more than a billion dollars’ worth of loans for the purchase of Russian military and nonmilitary goods.

       The charm offensive was further sweetened by Russian crude, which Moscow sold to New Delhi in the 1960s at a 10% to 20% discount to prevailing world prices.

       “This was all part of the Soviet ‘oil offensive,’" said historian Sergey Radchenko, Cold War expert and professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

       Moscow even sent geologists to India to search for oil and, when little was found, the Soviet Union allowed India to purchase Siberian crude with shipments of tea so that New Delhi could conserve its cash reserves, he said.

       The bonds grew closer after the U.S. backed Pakistan—a bitter rival of India—and imposed a slew of sanctions on New Delhi in 1974 after its first nuclear test and in 1998 when India again tested its nuclear weapons.

       “Many Indians still find Russia today, because of the history, a reliable partner," said Harsh V. Pant, head of strategic studies at the Observer Research Foundation, a think tank in New Delhi. “Many in India believe that America has always been more favorably disposed towards Pakistan."

       Even Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hasn’t pushed Modi to repudiate Moscow. India—which has long pursued a strategy of avoiding alignments with other major powers—has stayed neutral on the Ukraine war, abstaining from United Nations votes to condemn the invasion and declining to join successive waves of Western sanctions.

       Meanwhile, India—a net energy importer with a voracious and growing appetite for energy—benefited from a shift by Western countries away from Russian oil, as well as a price cap that the U.S. and its allies have imposed on the country’s crude.

       Sanctions targeting Russia’s oil industry have increased Moscow’s reliance on friendly nations such as India.

       Over the past several years, India has begun buying massive amounts of Russian oil. Last year, India accounted for more than one-third of Russia’s oil exports, second only to China at nearly 50%, according to the Observer Research Foundation. Steep discounts have saved Indian refineries $17 billion over the past three years, according to credit-rating firm ICRA.

       Indeed, India isn’t the only Asian country to benefit from Russia’s increasing economic isolation. Rival China has likewise bought crude and scooped up assets inside Russia. But a creeping wariness in Moscow of overdependence on Beijing makes Russia’s relationship with India all the more important.

       The cheap oil is critical for a country of 1.4 billion that is growing rapidly. The South Asian nation is the world’s fastest-growing consumer of oil, behind only the U.S. and China in total consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Its vast energy needs are met by importing 90% of its crude oil from overseas.

       Over the past three years, trade between the two countries skyrocketed to $69 billion, a record figure pushed higher by India’s purchases of Russian crude. Those imports have allowed New Delhi to sell gasoline at a cheaper rate domestically and resell its oil products abroad at a fatter margin.

       “It’s not going to be shutting off the Russian tap in the immediate future," said Syed Akbaruddin, former Indian permanent representative to the U.N. and dean of the Kautilya School of Public Policy in Hyderabad. “There is no way, given the cost differential and the impact on the budget."

       To be sure, Indian refineries have already started hedging their bets by curbing their purchases in recent weeks, according to data and analytics firm Kpler. Imports of Russian crude oil fell about 500,000 barrels a day in July to a five-month low of 1.6 million.

       According to the company’s analysis, India’s private refiners, which process over 50% of imported Russian crude, are expected to boost their imports from other sources including the Middle East and West Africa—but can’t cut off Russian oil completely.

       “Replacing Russian barrels is no easy feat—logistically daunting, economically painful and geopolitically fraught," Sumit Ritolia, Kpler’s lead research analyst in refining and modeling, wrote in a research note.

       Meanwhile, Trump has also taken aim at India’s historic reliance on Russia for military equipment.

       Although New Delhi has been trying to diversify its suppliers in recent decades, Russian and Soviet-made equipment still makes up over 50% of India’s arsenal. New Delhi continues to be a loyal customer of Russian arms.

       Part of the appeal is Moscow’s willingness to share technology and help India manufacture arms domestically. In contrast, under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. signaled its openness to technology transfers, but Washington has dragged its feet on some projects.

       Last month, the Indian navy commissioned a new stealth frigate purchased from Russia. Two more frigates are being built in India with technical assistance from Russia’s Yantar shipyards.

       In 2018, during Trump’s first term, India bucked threats of sanctions from the U.S. to agree to buy five squadrons of Russia’s top shelf S-400 air-defense system. Three of those squadrons so far have been delivered—and stationed along India’s borders with China and Pakistan.

       “It will be many decades before India can actually replace the Russian kit in their inventory, if they can replace it at all," said Ashley J. Tellis, an expert on geopolitics at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.