November: In a big boost to India’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) programme, the indigenously developed long-endurance combat-capable drone Rustom-II, successfully completed its maiden-flight on Wednesday. Designed and developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), the Bengaluru-based lab of DRDO with HAL-BEL as the production partners, the two-ton TAPAS 201 (Rustom-II) is a Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAV.
With an endurance of 24 hours, besides ability to conduct intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, it can also be used as an unmanned armed combat vehicle on the lines of the US's Predator drone.
The test flight took place from Aeronautical Test Range (ATR), Chitradurga, 250 km from Bengaluru, which is a newly developed flight test range for the testing of UAVs and manned aircraft.
A Defence Ministry statement said the flight achieved its objectives of proving the flying platform with successful take-off, banking, level flight and landing among others.
It is also the first R&D prototype UAV to have undergone certification and qualification for the first flight from the Center for Military Airworthiness & Certification and Directorate General of Aeronautical Quality Assurance.
Many critical systems such as airframe, landing gear, flight control and avionics sub- systems are being developed in India with the collaboration of private industries.
Rustom-II will undergo further trials for validating the design parameters, before going for User Validation Trials.
