NEW DELHI — India has conducted its first successful flight test of the indigenously developed Rustom-II medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (MALE UAV) at the Chitradurga flight test range in the southern state of Karnataka, India.

The flight accomplished the main objectives of proving the platform's capabilities, such as takeoff, banking, level flight and landing, according to a Ministry of Defence (MoD) news release.

The first prototype of the homemade MALE UAV, known as TAPAS 201, was designed and developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment, an aeronautics laboratory of state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation, with state enterprises Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Bharat Electronics Limited as production partners.

"TAPAS 201, a multi-mission UAV is being developed to carry out the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) roles for the three Armed Forces with an endurance of 24 hours. It is capable to carry different combinations of payloads like Medium Range Electro Optic (MREO), Long Range Electro Optic (LREO), Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Electronic Intelligence (ELINT), Communication Intelligence (COMINT) and Situational Awareness Payloads (SAP) to perform missions during day and night," the MoD said.

Rustom-II is a tri-service requirement, an Indian Air Force official said, adding that it will need at least a dozen successful flight trials before it is finally inducted.

"Rustom- II will undergo further trials for validating the design parameters, before going for user validation trials," the MoD noted.

Wednesday's flight test was restricted to a range of less than 100 kilometers, though the UAV's range is slated to achieve 250 kilometers, an IAF official said.

Rustom-II weighs 1.8 tons and will have a capacity payload of 350 kilograms. Its has a wingspan of about 21 meters and an endurance of more than 24 hours.

India's three defense services will use Rustom-II for military missions like reconnaissance and surveillance, target acquisition, target designation, communications relay, battle damage assessment, and signal intelligence.

Once fully operational, Rustom-II will begin to replace the Israeli Heron UAVs used by the Indian Air force and Navy.

Vivek Raghuvanshi is the India correspondent for Defense News.

Share:
More In Cyber