India Steps Up to MALE UAV
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Posted
by Graham Warwick at
11/6/2009 8:54 AM CST
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The Indian press is reporting that the defense ministry's Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) is getting ready to fly the technology demonstrator for the indigenous Rustom medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aircraft. But the demonstrator will not look much like the Rustom full-scale mockup displayed at the Aero India 2009 show in February...
Photo: via Wikipedia
That's because the demonstrator is a modification of the Light Canard Research Aircraft (LCRA), a Rutan Long-EZ kitplane acquired and assembled by the National Aerospace Laboratories in the 1980s to gain experience with composite structures. The LCRA has been modified for unmanned operation to act as the demonstrator and is expected to make about 10 flights to begin proving the technologies for the full-size Rustom-H.
The Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO), meanwhile, will evaluate four proposals from Indian industry to become the "production agency cum development partner" (PADP) for the Rustom. The PADP will have a financial stake in the program, as will the Indian armed forces, and will participate in design and development while concurrently establishing the infrastructure for production and product support.
This is a dramatic departure from traditional Indian practice, in which DRDO laboratories develop systems, build prototypes and conduct field tests, then hand them over to industry to produce. This sequential process has led to inordinate development delays and difficulties inducting systems into service. The Rustom program will be the first to try the concurrent approach.
Proposals have been received from India's Godrej and Tata industrial groups, Larson & Toubro, and a joint venture between Hindustan Aeronautics and Bharat Electronics, but selection of the PADP is unlikely before mid-2010. In return for taking a stake in the program, the industry partner is likely to demand a government guarantee the armed forces will buy a specific number of systems.
DRDO says the 1,800kg Rustom will enter service by the end of 2012, which already seems optimistic, and will match or exceed the performance of the IAI Heron MALE UAVs now operated by India. Performance goals include more than 24 hours on station at 1,000km range, at altitudes up to 35,000ft, carrying a 350kg payload of electro-optical, radar and/or electronic-surveillance sensors.
Rustom will be only the third UAV developed by ADE. The Lakshya jet-powered target aircraft entered service in 1999, and deliveries of the Nishant tactical UAV are getting under way after more than a decade in development. Rustom seems an ambitious and aggressive program given India's well-known problems developing indigenous fighters and missiles.
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