Article Posted on : - Nov 25, 2009

India's own UAV Nishant on display at the Aero India 2009 in Bangalore. A File Photo.

BANGALORE (PTI): The Defence Research and Development Organisation will be embarking on developing an Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV), a top official said Wednesday.

The UCAV will be produced as part of a plan to develop defence weapon systems.

"We will be embarking on UCAV, which will be an unmanned aerial vehicle with weapons. This will not only do surveillance but fire on identified targets," Dr V K Saraswat, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister and DRDO Director General, told reporters here.

All controls of the unmanned vehicle will rest with the Command Control Centres (CCCs) which could be situated at geographically different locations. Even if one CCC becomes defunct, it can be controlled and directed from other CCCs. It will work in a layered manner, Saraswat said.

DRDO has also started work on high-altitude medium endurance UAV. "ADE (Aeronautical Development Establishment) is developing the vehicle which has already had test flight, he said on the sidelines of a two-day national conference on 'IT in Defence-2009'.

ERDE (Electronics and Radar Development Establishment) has been developing state-of-the-art radars like long-range active radars and aperture radars which are capable of detecting targets within a range of 600 to 800 km.