Article Posted on : - Nov 12, 2011

A file photo.

BANGALORE (PTI): Indigenously designed and developed Rustom-1, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) made its fifth successful flight Friday flying at an altitude of 2,300 ft AGL (above ground level) at a speed of 100 Knots during the 25 minutes cruise near Hosur, about 40 km from here.

The medium altitude long endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (Male UAV) has been developed by the DRDO with Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) Bangalore as the nodal laboratory. It had its maiden flight in 2010, a DRDO release said.

ADE Director P S Krishnan 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 kgs 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, he said.

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, the release said.

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.