Rustom-II, India’s indigenously developed long-endurance combat-capable drone, on 16 Nov.  successfully completed its maiden-flight, giving a boost to India’s development programme for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).

The DRDO successfully carried out the maiden-flight of TAPAS 201 (RUSTOM–II), a Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAV. It has an endurance of 24 hours and can conduct surveillance and reconnaissance missions for the country’s armed forces.

TAPAS 201 has been designed and developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), the Bangalore-based premier lab of DRDO with HAL-BEL as its production partner.

TAPAS 201, a multi-mission UAV is being developed to carry out the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) roles for the three Armed Forces with an endurance of 24 hours. It is capable of carrying different combinations of payloads like Medium Range Electro Optic (MREO), Long Range Electro Optic (LREO), Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Electronic Intelligence (ELINT), Communication Intelligence (COMINT) and Situational Awareness Payloads (SAP) to perform missions during day and night.

Many critical systems such as airframe, landing gear, flight control and avionics sub-systems are being developed in India with the collaboration of private industries. Rustom-II will undergo further trials for validating the design parameters, before going for User Validation Trials.

The Rustom-2 has been renamed Tapas 201. The Rustom-1, which flew for the first time in 2009, had been named after the late Rustom Damania, who helped develop the aircraft that had been used as a prototype.

Source: Times of India, livemint.com, ndtv.com, indianexpress.com