Rustom-1 makes successful flight

The medium altitude long endurance UAV is developed by Defence Research and development Organisation (DRDO) with Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) Bangalore as the nodal laboratory. It had its maiden flight in 2010.

P S Krishnan, Director, ADE stated that the flight was successful as all the modifications done worked well and all the parameters were achieved by the UAV which was weighing 661 kg and the total performance was good. In specific the objective of testing modified lift off scheme, modified altitude and speed hold logics worked excellently well.

Indian Army has shown keen interest in this programme. This UAV has the potential military missions like reconnaissance and surveillance, target acquisition, target designation, communications relay, battle damage assessment and signal intelligence.

This UAV can attain a maximum speed of 150 knots, 22,000 ft of altitude and endurance of 12-15 hours with an operating range of 250 kms when fully developed.