Source: The post is based on the article “Indigenous UAV Rustom-2 to complete user trials by August 2023” published in The Hindu on 21st October 2022.
What is the News?
India’s indigenously developed Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Rustom-2 is expected to complete all user trials by August 2023.
What is Rustom-2?
Rustom 2 is a medium altitude long endurance(MALE) Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
It is also known as Tapas-BH (Tactical Airborne Platform for Aerial Surveillance-Beyond Horizon 201).
Developed by: Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), an arm of DRDO with the production partners being Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Ltd.
Purpose: It is being developed to carry out surveillance and reconnaissance(ISR) roles and is also capable of carrying different combinations of advanced payloads and capable of auto-landing among others.
Significance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAV): High-endurance UAVs are a priority requirement for the armed forces especially in the standoff with China in Eastern Ladakh.
– The armed forces rely heavily on the Israeli Searcher and Heron drones and need more such UAVs. The Services have embarked on a major upgrade project of the Heron UAVs.
– A separate proposal for 30 armed Predator drones, 10 for each Service from the U.S. is also in advanced stages.
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