New Delhi: India's homemade medium altitude long endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Rustom II is due for its first test flight by the end of this month. If successful, Rustom II, manufactured by the state-run Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), can eliminate the need to import American Predator drones or Israel's Heron drones. India's Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar will witness the test flight.
According to the Ministry of Defense, "Rustom-II is being designed to operate at up to 30,000 ft above mean sea level altitude (AMSL) with an endurance of 24 hours from take-off to landing, with synthetic aperture radar and long range electro-optic payloads (up to 350 kg) at 20,000 ft. It is designed to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions for the Indian Army, Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force."
Rustom II has a range of up to 250 km; however, sources says that first flight will cover approximately 100 km.
Air Marshal Anil Chopra (Retired) says, "India desperately needs to have a good program for UAVs because China already has 1b500 UAVs and they are making 40-50 different types of UAVs. There are a large number of manufacturers in China which are doing it and, of course, until now, we have depended on Israeli systems. Now, the specifications which we have given to ourselves for Rustom are very good. But, we only hope that ultimately Rustom will be good. In any UAV there are basically two things which are critical; one is the quality of auto-pilot which the UAV has and second is the quality of the data link between ground and the UAV through satellite or whatever."
11/07/16 Sputnik
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According to the Ministry of Defense, "Rustom-II is being designed to operate at up to 30,000 ft above mean sea level altitude (AMSL) with an endurance of 24 hours from take-off to landing, with synthetic aperture radar and long range electro-optic payloads (up to 350 kg) at 20,000 ft. It is designed to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions for the Indian Army, Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force."
Rustom II has a range of up to 250 km; however, sources says that first flight will cover approximately 100 km.
Air Marshal Anil Chopra (Retired) says, "India desperately needs to have a good program for UAVs because China already has 1b500 UAVs and they are making 40-50 different types of UAVs. There are a large number of manufacturers in China which are doing it and, of course, until now, we have depended on Israeli systems. Now, the specifications which we have given to ourselves for Rustom are very good. But, we only hope that ultimately Rustom will be good. In any UAV there are basically two things which are critical; one is the quality of auto-pilot which the UAV has and second is the quality of the data link between ground and the UAV through satellite or whatever."
11/07/16 Sputnik
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