Tag Archives: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Drdo

Rustom-II takes to skies as mystery over transfer of its project director continues

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By Pradip R. Sagar February 26, 2018 THE WEEK
Over a month after ‘unceremonious departure’ of the project director of Rustom-II drone A.P.V.S. Prasad, DRDO on Sunday carried out test flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in Challakere in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district.

After the test, DRDO came out with a statement that a medium-altitude long-endurance UAV was “successful”.

However, colleagues of Prasad—“scientist-G”who was made project director of the Rustom-II UAV programme of DRDO in 2015—are still curious to know the reason behind Prasad’s sudden transfer from the project, which he actually revived. Insiders claim that Prasad’s departure was linked to his objection to the lobby, which was pushing for a particular engine for the Rustom-II. Rustom was being developed with an Austrian engine, but a few people in the organisation wanted to replace it with the engine made by an Indian firm, despite the engine’s failure to meet the ‘technical parameters’ to be used in the UAV.

Sensing foul play, Scientists Association of Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE)—DRDO’s laboratory making the UAVs—has approached Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to look into the matter (copy of the letter is with The WEEK). Following the complaint, a discreet inquiry is being conducted by the intelligence agencies.

On January 16, 2018, DRDO’s headquarters issued an order for transfer of Prasad to an another DRDO lab on grounds of “public interest”. Incidentally, Prasad was honoured with the best scientist award in 2017.

According to the letter from the ADE association, Prasad, who was in the DRDO for over 30 years, was promoted as the programme director of coveted Rustom-II in 2015. He actually rejuvenating the project, which was lying in a pathetic condition, and within a year of taking over, he managed to carry out first test flight of Rustom-II, the letter reveals.

When contacted, DRDO spokesperson Manish Bhardwaj declined to comment on the issue saying “he was unaware of the internal developments”.

On Sunday, DRDO came out with a statement saying “DRDO successfully flew its Rustom 2 today at its Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) at Chalakere at Chitradurga. This flight assumes significance due to the fact that this is the first flight in user configuration with higher power engine.”

Unarmed drone Rustom-II is being developed to carry out surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) roles for the armed forces with an endurance of 24 hours, on the lines of Predator drone of the US forces.

According to the officials, Rustom-II is capable of carrying different combinations of payloads like synthetic aperture radar, electronic intelligence systems and situational awareness payloads.

Drdo

Made in India Drones: India’s worst nightmare ??

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Published November 2, 2017 Indian Defence Research Wing
SOURCE: ABHOY ROY / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG

India’s quest to develop Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) started in early 90’s when India’s ADE (Aeronautical Development Establishment), a branch of DRDO was tasked to develop India’s first Nishant UAV based on India Army’s requirement for intelligence gathering platform over enemy territory, which had its first flight in 1995.

Exactly after a decade later, Indian army’s fleet of four home-grown Nishant UAV had suffered crashes and all were lost prompting Army to cancel any future plans to place any further orders for the Nishant UAV.

DRDO second attempts to develop a Medium Altitude Long Endurance unmanned air vehicle began soon after around 2003 with the development of Rustom-1 design based on Rutan Long-EZ Homebuilt aircraft developed by American based Rutan Aircraft Factory.

Rustom-1 was supposed to be Technology Demonstrator platform upon which India had plans to develop a Larger UAV with a flight endurance of over 24 hours in Predator Class. Rustom-1 had its first flight in 2009 and soon there were reports that Indian Army and Indian Navy were interested in using them to replace older Israeli supplied Searcher reconnaissance UAVs.

But few years down the line both Indian Army and Indian Navy decided not to pursue the project any further due to the slow pace of development and lack of meaning full sensor package. Rustom-1 still remains a Technology Demonstrator platform for its larger sibling and there is little hope that it will ever make into full-scale production drone.

Tapas (BH-201 ) which was earlier known as Rustom-II made its first flight last year, but soon it was confirmed in media reports that the first prototype was soon pulled out of flight trials to address technical issues with the program. According to media reports, the first prototype was over-engineered and suffered from weight issues and required considerable re-engineering of turboprop engine section and to its wing section.

The second prototype of Tapas (BH-201 ) is still going through considerable weight reduction measures and is prepped for sensor and payload integration which has already seen delays its first flight planned for in mid of 2017.

DRDO in 2014 again tested for the first time Panchi which is a wheeled version of the Nishant unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based on Army’s recommendation but it is still unclear if Army has made any requirement for Panchi UAV and it might also risk of heading dead end like Nishant.

The only project which seems to have got a considerable level of acceptance in Indian armed forces is light-weight Netra Quadcopter which DRDO developed with Mumbai-based Idea Forge and Indian Eagle mini-drone developed by HAL, along with Suchan developed by NAL , but a great deal of MALE and HALE Class UAV programs like Nishant, Panchi, Rustom-1, and Tapas have seen considerable delays in the program and there is no clear deadline when they will enter into production .

Conclusion

India still has a combined tri-service requirement for the acquisition of 150 medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAVs for which Request for Information already has been floated by India earlier this year But the Unfortunate truth is that India doesn’t only have troubles perfecting drone technology but is also facing serious delays in projects which are far from over and still continues to face a considerable amount of technological challenges that India is now risk falling behind countries in the region on drone technology.

A solution could be to encourage Private Defence companies in India to come with similar projects which can either help fast track this projects or help develop alternative platforms which can be used by our armed forces to truly make ” Make in India ” Initiative of PM Modi a Success.