Ghatak and Rustom Indigenous UAV Programs
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India considering buying ‘armed version’ of Israeli drone
The Heron TP is Israel's largest unmanned aerial vehicle with an 85-foot wingspan, the same as a Boeing 737 airliner. It can stay airborne for 24 hours and carry a 1-ton payload.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
NOVEMBER 17, 2019 20:23
IAI Heron TP static display at ILA 2018(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).
India is reportedly considering purchasing 10 Israeli-made drones with missile-launching capabilities, according to a report in the Indian press.
The Tribune, an Indian newspaper, reported Sunday that New Delhi is looking at the drone capable of carrying missiles - an armed version of the Israeli Heron TP, Israel’s long-range drone said to be capable of flying to Iran.
The Heron TP is Israel's largest unmanned aerial vehicle with an 85-foot wingspan, the same as a Boeing 737 airliner. It can stay airborne for 24 hours and carry a 1-ton payload.
While Israel doesn't openly admit it, foreign media reported that the Heron TP is also capable of launching air-to-surface missiles.
Sources told the paper that the Indian Ministry of Defense had approved the deal last May. “We are working to finalize the deal that is estimated to be $400 million,” sources told The Tribune.
If the deal goes ahead, it would be the first drones that India could use to launch attacks against ground targets. India is one of Israel’s primary markets for defense exports.
In July, Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems signed a $100 million contract with KRAS (Kalyani Rafael Advanced Systems Ltd. India), to manufacture and supply 1,000 Barak 8/ MRSAM missile kits for the Indian Army and Air Force.
Israel has been supplying India with various weapons systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in recent years, making the Asian giant one of Israel’s largest buyer of military hardware with annual sales worth over $1 billion.
India considering buying ‘armed version’ of Israeli drone
The Heron TP is Israel's largest unmanned aerial vehicle with an 85-foot wingspan, the same as a Boeing 737 airliner. It can stay airborne for 24 hours and carry a 1-ton payload.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
NOVEMBER 17, 2019 20:23
IAI Heron TP static display at ILA 2018(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).
India is reportedly considering purchasing 10 Israeli-made drones with missile-launching capabilities, according to a report in the Indian press.
The Tribune, an Indian newspaper, reported Sunday that New Delhi is looking at the drone capable of carrying missiles - an armed version of the Israeli Heron TP, Israel’s long-range drone said to be capable of flying to Iran.
The Heron TP is Israel's largest unmanned aerial vehicle with an 85-foot wingspan, the same as a Boeing 737 airliner. It can stay airborne for 24 hours and carry a 1-ton payload.
While Israel doesn't openly admit it, foreign media reported that the Heron TP is also capable of launching air-to-surface missiles.
Sources told the paper that the Indian Ministry of Defense had approved the deal last May. “We are working to finalize the deal that is estimated to be $400 million,” sources told The Tribune.
If the deal goes ahead, it would be the first drones that India could use to launch attacks against ground targets. India is one of Israel’s primary markets for defense exports.
In July, Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems signed a $100 million contract with KRAS (Kalyani Rafael Advanced Systems Ltd. India), to manufacture and supply 1,000 Barak 8/ MRSAM missile kits for the Indian Army and Air Force.
Israel has been supplying India with various weapons systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in recent years, making the Asian giant one of Israel’s largest buyer of military hardware with annual sales worth over $1 billion.
India considering buying ‘armed version’ of Israeli drone
Can anybody access this article ? If yes, post it here please.
India can save billions of dollars as US to retire Global Hawk drones
India can save billions of dollars as US to retire Global Hawk drones
Stemming from America’s changing security threats is a lucrative opportunity for New Delhi to save billions of dollars on its on-going purchase of 30 Sea Guardian unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and another 10 P-8I Poseidon multi-mission maritime aircraft (MMA) for monitoring the Indian Ocean. Instead of spending an estimated $2.5 billion on Sea Guardian drones, India could buy up to 24 far more capable, sophisticated and longer-range RQ-4 Global Hawk drones that the US Air Force (USAF) wants to discard. It believes long-range drones are superfluous as Washington shifts attention from combating terrorism (which requires drones to track and kill terrorists) and focuses instead on building the capabilities needed to combat a new threat – superpower adversaries Russia and China.
To save money for buying cutting-edge warfighting weapons like stealth bombers and hypersonic missiles, the USAF has reportedly proposed to the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) to scrap two-thirds of its fleet of about 35 Global Hawk drones. If the Pentagon accepts the USAF proposal, that would clear the decks for India’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) to ask for the retired Global Hawk UASs under the Pentagon’s “Excess Defence Articles” (EDA) programme. The Pentagon’s decision will be known in February 2020, when it submits its final budget projections to the US Congress. The EDA programme allows the Pentagon to supply its unneeded weaponry to allies and partner countries at heavily discounted prices, or even free of cost in cases where US national security objectives are being furthered. Building India’s capability as a “net security provider” in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is a stated US national security policy objective. In 2005, India experienced the cost benefits of buying US equipment under the EDA programme. That year, the Pentagon sold the Indian Navy the USS Trenton — an amphibious warfare ship, now renamed INS Jalashwa — for just $60 million, about a tenth of what it was worth. That price included the cost of six helicopters on the warship. The Jalashwa is currently the second-biggest warship in India’s navy.
The Global Hawk is classified as a “high altitude long endurance” (HALE) UAS, that can carry out surveillance of a stretch of land or ocean for over 30 hours continuously, physically scanning up to 100,000 square kilometres each day – more than the Sea Guardians that India’s millitary is currently acquiring. Teams of drone pilots, working in shifts, fly long-range drone missions from ground stations thousands of kilometres away, using satellite communication links. The information the UAS picks up is transmitted to the ground station in real time, allowing the military to respond to threats immediately. US firm Northrop Grumman, which designed and built the Global Hawk, is currently developing it into a maritime variant called the MQ-4C Triton, which is customised for oceanic surveillance.
Under the so-called Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program, Northrop Grumman is integrating the Triton with the P-8A Poseidon for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) maritime missions. Joining the US, Australia, which also operates the P-8A Poseidon, has joined BAMS. With the Indian Navy currently operating the world’s largest Poseidon fleet (outside for the US Navy), acquiring Global Hawks under the EDA programme and modifying them to MQ-4C Triton configuration could provide a cheap and effective BAMS solution for surveillance of the Indian Ocean. Since 2001, a generation of US drones like the Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk has played a central role in the “War on Terror”, killing hundreds of terrorists and their supporters in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen. But UAS are highly vulnerable to radar-based air defence systems of the kind that state adversaries deploy. This was underscored in June, when Iran shot down a Global Hawk that America was operating over the Strait of Hormuz. However, India does not intend to fly Sea Guardian drones (or Global Hawks if those are bought) over hostile airspace, but over international waters – to monitor shipping over the vast expanses of the Indian Ocean. Therefore the vulnerability of these UAS to radar-guided air defence weapons is not a major concern. Asked whether it plans to approach the Pentagon for buying surplus Global Hawk drones under the EDA programme, the navy has not commented. The Pentagon’s shift from counterterrorism to combating great-power threats from China and Russia has been laid out in the Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy document that was published in January 2018.
DRDO Nishant drone's engine :
Spec sheet of the engine :
NAL is making a new drone :
Auto pilot system for the drone above :
A lot of work being done on autonomous drones.
Spec sheet of the engine :
NAL is making a new drone :
Auto pilot system for the drone above :
A lot of work being done on autonomous drones.
Rustom-II UAV, loaded with new features, set to fly soon
Anantha Krishnan M, February 08, 2020; 11:02 AM IST
Lucknow: An upgraded version of Rustom-II (Tapas) - the medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) - being developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), is ready to take to the skies soon.
The new platform (AF-6A) being readied for its first flight will be seventh one from Rustom-II flight line. The sixth prototype (AF-6) of Rustom-II had crashed near the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) in Chalakere (Chitradurga district, Karnataka) on September 17, 2019. (AF stands for air frame.)
ADE is a Bengaluru-based Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) lab working on unmanned platforms and subsonic cruise missiles. Rustom-II, when inducted into the armed forces, will undertake surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
Rajnath inspires
It is now confirmed that the crash was due to the momentary and simultaneous link loss that prompted the UAV to enter into the ‘return home mode.’ The platform also had to encounter a rough patch of turbulence beyond the capacity of control law, resulting in the crash.
The behaviour of the UAV is being claimed to have been on the expected lines and as per the design parameters. The sensor data was available for the ground station almost till its touchdown\crash.
A scientist who is part of this project told Onmanorama that the Rustom-II team got a pep-talk from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh two days after the crash, during his visit to Bengaluru.
"He had come to visit the Tejas facilities and subsequently had undertaken a sortie on the same on September 19. Our team was called to meet him and he wanted us to resume the flight immediately," says a scientist.
The defence minister gave the team 15 days to get the UAV back into action.
"We had the 5th aircraft (AF-5) from the flight line flying on October 3, putting behind all the setbacks. The project team rose to the occasion and commenced the flying," says the scientist.
Added might
The seventh platform (AF-6A) from Rustom-II flight line set to undertake its maiden flight carries many new features. From AF-5 prototype onwards (February 2018), Rustom-II is being powered by a 180 HP Austro engine, replacing the 115 HP Rotax engine.
Among the new features embedded into the system are: a solid state relay-based low weight power distribution unit; an indigenous inertial navigation system (INS) developed by RCI, Hyderabad; Lithium ion batteries and satellite communication (SATCOM) link.
The major surveillance payloads that are now being flown are electronic intelligence (ELINT ), communications intelligence(COMINT), Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and long\medium range electro optical (EO) systems.
DRDO carried out the first test flight of Rustom-II prototype in November, 2016 at the ATR. Till date, it has completed 77 development flights, including seven, post its crash.
A total of 15 platforms are being planned during the development phase, out of which last five will be the production versions.
These five will be handed over to the users for their independent evaluations.
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited will manufacture the last five variants and the scientists are working on to optimizing the design from AF-8 to AF-10.
The state-of-the-art ground control station (GCS) and image exploitation system have added more teeth to the mission. The GCS is said to have been appreciated by the UAV operators from the armed forces.
Weight reduction
Indian Army is the major stakeholder in the Rustom-II mission with a requirement for 60 platforms, followed by the Indian Air Force (12) and the Indian Navy (four).
Backed by a young team with an average age of 35 years, Rustom-II core project team consists of 30 scientists and engineers.
With overweight being a curse for most of the desi aeronautical platforms, ADE now promises to shred the ‘unwanted mass’ of Rustom-II by 260 kgs, when the new platform kisses the skies.
Weight reduction process for data link and payloads are currently on for future prototypes.
DRDO Chairman Dr G Satheesh Reddy had told Onmanorama at DefExpo2020 that delays are now being dealt with priority.
"Some of our recent missions are good examples as to how speed has become our mantra now. Things have changed a lot compared to past," he claims.
(The writer is an independent aerospace and defence journalist, who blogs at Tarmak007 and tweets @writetake.)
Rustom-II UAV, loaded with new features, set to fly soon
Anantha Krishnan M, February 08, 2020; 11:02 AM IST
Lucknow: An upgraded version of Rustom-II (Tapas) - the medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) - being developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), is ready to take to the skies soon.
The new platform (AF-6A) being readied for its first flight will be seventh one from Rustom-II flight line. The sixth prototype (AF-6) of Rustom-II had crashed near the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) in Chalakere (Chitradurga district, Karnataka) on September 17, 2019. (AF stands for air frame.)
ADE is a Bengaluru-based Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) lab working on unmanned platforms and subsonic cruise missiles. Rustom-II, when inducted into the armed forces, will undertake surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
Rajnath inspires
It is now confirmed that the crash was due to the momentary and simultaneous link loss that prompted the UAV to enter into the ‘return home mode.’ The platform also had to encounter a rough patch of turbulence beyond the capacity of control law, resulting in the crash.
The behaviour of the UAV is being claimed to have been on the expected lines and as per the design parameters. The sensor data was available for the ground station almost till its touchdown\crash.
A scientist who is part of this project told Onmanorama that the Rustom-II team got a pep-talk from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh two days after the crash, during his visit to Bengaluru.
"He had come to visit the Tejas facilities and subsequently had undertaken a sortie on the same on September 19. Our team was called to meet him and he wanted us to resume the flight immediately," says a scientist.
The defence minister gave the team 15 days to get the UAV back into action.
"We had the 5th aircraft (AF-5) from the flight line flying on October 3, putting behind all the setbacks. The project team rose to the occasion and commenced the flying," says the scientist.
Added might
The seventh platform (AF-6A) from Rustom-II flight line set to undertake its maiden flight carries many new features. From AF-5 prototype onwards (February 2018), Rustom-II is being powered by a 180 HP Austro engine, replacing the 115 HP Rotax engine.
Among the new features embedded into the system are: a solid state relay-based low weight power distribution unit; an indigenous inertial navigation system (INS) developed by RCI, Hyderabad; Lithium ion batteries and satellite communication (SATCOM) link.
The major surveillance payloads that are now being flown are electronic intelligence (ELINT ), communications intelligence(COMINT), Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and long\medium range electro optical (EO) systems.
DRDO carried out the first test flight of Rustom-II prototype in November, 2016 at the ATR. Till date, it has completed 77 development flights, including seven, post its crash.
A total of 15 platforms are being planned during the development phase, out of which last five will be the production versions.
These five will be handed over to the users for their independent evaluations.
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited will manufacture the last five variants and the scientists are working on to optimizing the design from AF-8 to AF-10.
The state-of-the-art ground control station (GCS) and image exploitation system have added more teeth to the mission. The GCS is said to have been appreciated by the UAV operators from the armed forces.
Weight reduction
Indian Army is the major stakeholder in the Rustom-II mission with a requirement for 60 platforms, followed by the Indian Air Force (12) and the Indian Navy (four).
Backed by a young team with an average age of 35 years, Rustom-II core project team consists of 30 scientists and engineers.
With overweight being a curse for most of the desi aeronautical platforms, ADE now promises to shred the ‘unwanted mass’ of Rustom-II by 260 kgs, when the new platform kisses the skies.
Weight reduction process for data link and payloads are currently on for future prototypes.
DRDO Chairman Dr G Satheesh Reddy had told Onmanorama at DefExpo2020 that delays are now being dealt with priority.
"Some of our recent missions are good examples as to how speed has become our mantra now. Things have changed a lot compared to past," he claims.
(The writer is an independent aerospace and defence journalist, who blogs at Tarmak007 and tweets @writetake.)
Rustom-II UAV, loaded with new features, set to fly soon
According to @hellbent, this pod will be used in Rustom 2.
Tweet :- New EW POD under development by @DRDO_India
Edit :- We need a dedicated thread for Indian EW systems.
Tweet :- New EW POD under development by @DRDO_India
Edit :- We need a dedicated thread for Indian EW systems.
Not only UAV , it can be used for aircrafts also
Similar Israeli version currently in use , I have circled in red
The fellow even posted the screenshot of my post in either d.fi or sf ( minus my username lol ) . Anyways don't follow the comments in the Twitter , it is useless.
All 3 are different systems
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Rustom Rises
Rustom-II (Tapas), the medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from Aeronautical Development Establishment flew in the Satellite Communication (SATCOM) mode for the first time.
Sources at DRDO headquarters confirm that the UAV also flew with the long range electro optical payload. They claim that these two capabilities are not available on the Heron and Searcher UAVs being operated by the tri-Services now.
The future of this UAV programme is still unclear, with the Services yet to give any firm commitment. Sources say the Tapas team is determined to prove several new capabilities during the next set of trials.
Rustom-II (Tapas), the medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from Aeronautical Development Establishment flew in the Satellite Communication (SATCOM) mode for the first time.
Sources at DRDO headquarters confirm that the UAV also flew with the long range electro optical payload. They claim that these two capabilities are not available on the Heron and Searcher UAVs being operated by the tri-Services now.
The future of this UAV programme is still unclear, with the Services yet to give any firm commitment. Sources say the Tapas team is determined to prove several new capabilities during the next set of trials.
Rustom Rises
Rustom-II (Tapas), the medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from Aeronautical Development Establishment flew in the Satellite Communication (SATCOM) mode for the first time.
Sources at DRDO headquarters confirm that the UAV also flew with the long range electro optical payload. They claim that these two capabilities are not available on the Heron and Searcher UAVs being operated by the tri-Services now.
The future of this UAV programme is still unclear, with the Services yet to give any firm commitment. Sources say the Tapas team is determined to prove several new capabilities during the next set of trials.
This is taking tooooooo long.
armed forces trials are still pending I don't see it getting inducted In foreseeable future.