NEW DELHI- India’s premier defence research institute DRDO carried out“successful” test flight of its Rustom 2 drone, a medium-altitudelong-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), at Chalakere in Karnataka. onSunday.
Rustom 2 is being developed on the lines of predator drones of the US tocarry out surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) roles for the armed forceswith an endurance of 24 hours, officials said.
“DRDO successfully flew its Rustom 2 today (Sunday) at its AeronauticalTest Range (ATR) at Chalakere at Chitradurga. This flight assumessignificance due to the fact that this is the first flight in userconfiguration with higher power engine,” a statement read.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said the testflight was “successful” and all its parameters were “normal”.
Rustom 2 is capable of carrying different combinations of payloads likesynthetic aperture radar, electronic intelligence systems and situationalawareness payloads, officials said.
DRDO chairman S Christopher, its Director General of Aeronautical System CPRamanarayanan, DG Electronics and Communication Systems J Manjula and othersenior scientists witnessed the test flight.
The around Rs 1,500-crore UAV project was initiated considering requirementof the the Army, Navy and Air Force.
The UAV has been designed and developed by Aeronautical DevelopmentEstablishment (ADE) of the DRDO, and aerospace major Hindustan AeronauticsLtd and Bharat Electronics Ltd are its production partners.