DRDO Rustom

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The DRDO Rustom (English: Warrior) is a Medium Altitude Long Endurance unmanned air vehicle (UAV) being developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation for the three services, Indian Army, Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force of the Indian Armed Forces.[1] Rustom is derived from the NAL's LCRA (Light Canard Research Aircraft) developed by a team under the leadership of late Prof Rustom Damania in the 1980s. The UAV will have structural changes and a new engine.[2] Rustom will replace/supplement the Heron UAVs in service with the Indian armed forces.[3]

Design and development

Rustom-1's basic design is derived from the NAL light canard research aircraft (LCRA). The aircraft has been named after Rustom Damania, a former professor of IISc, Bangalore who died in 2001. DRDO decided to name the UAV after him because it is derived from National Aerospace Laboratories' light canard research aircraft (LCRA) developed under Rustom Damania's leadership in the 1980s.[4]

With the Rustom MALE UAV project, DRDO intends to move away from traditional ways of developing products whereby laboratories under DRDO, like the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), which is involved in this project, develop and finalize the product and transfer technology to a production agency.[5]

DRDO will follow a practice of concurrent engineering where initial design efforts also take into consideration production issues, with the production agency participating in the development of the system right from the design stage. The agency will also follow up issues related to infrastructure and expertise for the product and its support, thereby overcoming time delays in crucial projects.[6]

Rustom-1 has a wingspan of Template:Convert[7] and weighs Template:Convert,[7] will be launched by the conventional method and not the launcher as in the case of the DRDO Lakshya. Rustom will be able to see the enemy territory up to a distance of Template:Convert and carry a variety of cameras and radar for surveillance.[8]

Rustom-H, built on a different design, is a Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (MALE UAV), a twin engine system designed to carry out surveillance and reconnaissance missions. Rustom H will have a payload capacity of Template:Convert.[5]

The range of advanced technologies and systems include the following:[7]

  • Aerodynamic configurations, High aspect ratio wing, Composite airframe integrated with propulsion system, De-icing system for wings
  • Highly reliable systems with built-in redundancy for flight critical systems like flight control and navigation, data links, power management, - and mission critical payload management system
  • Digital Flight Control and Navigation System, Automatic Take off and Landing (ATOL)
  • Digital communication technologies for realizing data links to control and operate the mission and relay UAVs
  • Payloads with high resolution and precision stabilized platforms.

Variants

There will be three variants of the Rustom UAV.[9]

  • Rustom-1: Tactical UAV with endurance of 12 hours (based on NAL's LCRA )[5][10]
  • Rustom-H: Larger UAV with flight endurance of over 24 hours (completely different design from Rustom-1), higher range and service ceiling than Rustom-1.
  • TAPAS-BH-201 (Rustom-2): An unmanned aerial vehicle based on Rustom-H model. TAPAS-BH-201 was commonly believed to be an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle(UCAV) but at the press conference S Christopher, Director General of DRDO stated "Media reports are incorrect. Tapas is an UAV and not an UCAV".[11][5][9][12][13][14]

Current status

File:Rustom-1 during flight trails.jpg
Rustom-1 during flight trails

The Indian government has allowed the development of the Rustom MALE UAV project in association with a production agency cum development partner (PADP). The ADE officials indicated that the requests for proposals (RFP) would shortly be issued to four vendors which are the Tata Power Strategic Engineering Division, Larsen & Toubro Limited, Godrej Aerospace Limited and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited-Bharat Electronics Limited (joint bid) who were chosen out of the 23 firms that responded.

Currently, negotiations are underway between these companies and the three Indian armed forces since the private majors are looking for support and commitment from them before they start executing any development and production plans. This is because the chosen PADP will also have a financial stake in the Rustom project. The Armed Forces would also be asked to take up a financial stake and the Indian government may have to guarantee that a specific number of Rustom UAVs will be bought. On 09 Nov 21 the project achieved the rare distinction of indigenously developing Automatic Take off and Landing (ATOL) using GAGAN SBAS. On 09 Mar 22 the programme achieved a double digit Endurance clocking 10:20hr surpassing the previous time of 08:05hr which was achieved in 2020.[6][15]

Rustom-1

The first flight of Rustom-I UAV took place on 16 November 2009 at the Taneja Aerospace Air Field near Hosur. The demonstration resulted in the prototype crashing to the ground. Stated by the DRDO, the taxiing and takeoff was exactly as planned. Due to misjudgment of altitude of the flight, the on-board engine was switched off through ground command which made the on-board thrust developed to go to zero.[16] Despite the mishap, the state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation stated: "The flight proved the functioning of a number of systems such as aerodynamics, redundant flight control, engine and datalink, which go a long way towards the development of a complex UAV."

The second "maiden" flight took place on 15 Oct 2010. In this test flight, the UAV flew for 30 minutes at an altitude of Template:Convert. The test was conducted in Hosur.[17] The Indian army was impressed with Rustom-1 and will use it as a MALE UAV.

Rustom-1 made its 5th successful flight on morning of 12 November 2011, flying for 25 minutes at Template:Convert AGL at a speed Template:Convert. It completed its 8th successful flight on 8 Dec 2011. It flew at an altitude of Template:Convert (max) and at a speed of Template:Convert (max) during its 30 minutes flight near Hosur, claims DRDO. The highlight of the flight was that Rustom-1 was test flown with the 'gimbal payload assembly carrying daylight TV & Infra-Red camera for the first time. Good quality pictures were received from the camera in gimbal payload assembly.

The 14th Successful Flight of Rustom-1 was reported on 8 May 2012, with the attainment of about Template:Convert above ground level and speed of above Template:Convert during 2 hours 10 minutes of operation.[18]

TAPAS-BH-201

Template:Main Article DRDO carried out a successful test flight of TAPAS-BH-201 on 25 February 2018, at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) located in Chalakere, Chitradurga district. This was the first flight of the UAV in user configuration with higher power engine.[19][20] During its development trials Rustom 2 crashed near Jodichikkenahalli in Karnataka's Chitradurga district on 17 September 2019. No one was hurt. The UAV was being tested at Challakere Aeronautical Test Range, a DRDO outdoor testing facility.[21] TAPAS-BH-201 completed satellite communication (SATCOM) mode trial and flew with long range electro-optical payload as of 16 August 2020.[22] In December 2021, Rustom- II had reached an altitude of 25,000 feet and had achieved an endurance of 10 hours. On March 12th 2022, it demonstrated its flight altitude above 27,500 feet with an endurance of 18 hours.

Specifications

Specifications of Rustom-1 and Rustom-H are as follows: Template:Aircraft specs

See also

Template:Aircontent

References

  1. ↑ Medium Altitude Long Endurance UAV Rustom Template:Webarchive
  2. ↑ Chapter 9 : NAL and Trainers:ACIG. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
  3. ↑ India joins select group to develop UCAV technology(2007-08-27). Retrieved 2008-09-02.
  4. ↑ [1] Template:Webarchive
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Unmanned: The Future of Air Wars. SP's Aviation. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 DRDO's Rustom UAV To Roll Out Soon Template:Webarchive. India Defence Online. Retrieved on 2011-10-20.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named DEFSTRAT
  8. ↑ Aero India 2009 News: Rustom to lock horns with Mantis, Herti Template:Webarchive. Indianaviationnews.net. Retrieved on 2011-10-20.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 India Eyes Armed Rustom UAVTemplate:Dead link
  10. ↑ [2] Template:Webarchive India plans to develop solar-powered UAVs
  11. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Tapas has no combat capabilities: DRDO
  12. ↑ India may soon have its own 'Predator drones'. Rediff News(November 15, 2011). Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  13. ↑ ADE Finalizes Rustom-2 UAV Flight, Reveals Future Drone Projects for Defence. Defence Now(February 25, 2012). Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  14. ↑ DRDO's Rustom-2 drone takes-off, India goes for armed Heron, News, Indian Defence. Defence News, Indian Defence News, IDRW, Indian Armed Forces. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  15. ↑ Significant step toward indigenous UAV. The Hindu. Retrieved 2013-06-26.
  16. ↑ Indias-uav-demonstrator-crashes-during-trials. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
  17. ↑ News / National : Rustom 1 test-flown Template:Webarchive. The Hindu (2010-10-18). Retrieved on 2011-10-20.
  18. ↑ http://drdo.gov.in/drdo/English/dpi/press_release/rustum-1_14.pdf Template:Webarchive DRDO Press Release: 14th Successful Flight of RUSTOM-1
  19. ↑ DRDO Successfully Test Flight Rustom 2. pib.nic.in. Retrieved 2018-02-25.
  20. ↑ DRDO successfully carries out test flight of indigenous Rustom-2 drone. The Indian Express(2018-02-25). Retrieved 2018-02-25.
  21. ↑ DRDO unmanned aerial vehicle TAPAS-BH-201 crashes in Karnataka. www.businesstoday.in(2019-09-17).
  22. ↑ Reporter Rajnath: When defence minister gave minute-by-minute news breaks on Rafale arrival. OnManorama. Retrieved 2020-08-22.

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