India’s state-run Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) has announced that the debut flight test of indigenously developed UAS Rustom-2 would take place in February 2014.
The Rustom is being developed exclusively for defence purpose and will have advanced capabilities and additional payloads. ADE is a premier DRDO lab which is designing and developing various UAS including the Rustom as well other combat and solar unmanned aircraft.
According to ADE Director P S Krishnan, the Rustom-2 UAS design has been completed and the purchase orders have been placed. ADE is currently on schedule to fly the Rustom-2 for the first time in February 2014. He added that the entire project of making ten Rustom-2 UAS and spare aircraft at a cost of around $ 342.25 million would be completed by August 2017.
The Rustom-2 will be comparable to the American ‘Predator’ due to its state-of-art capabilities. Rustom-2 weighs 1.8 tonnes and will have a capacity payload of 350 kg, a wing span of 21-odd meters and an endurance of above 24 hours. “Rustom UAS could be deployed for military missions like reconnaissance and surveillance, target acquisition, target designation, communications relay, battle damage assessment and signal intelligence.
Regarding the indigenous content of the Rustom , ADE has revealed that all parts, except for cameras and sensors, have been developed in the country. ADE officials added that indigenous technology would enable ADE save about 40 per cent cost. ADE has indicated that UAS will be crucial for the armed forces as they can perform missions from reconnaissance to surveillance as well as search & rescue operations. Indian Army pilots have already been trained on simulators and actual test flights of Rustom-1, which was developed earlier last year on a technology demonstration basis.
The Rustom is named after Rustom Damania, who was instrumental in conceptualizing the idea. ADE has acquired about 4200 acres of land in Chitragurga district in Karnataka which is being developed as a test range only for UAS.
Source: Defence Now