India’s ambitious Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) programme received a major boost when the second flight of the Rustom-1 technology demonstrator UAV was conducted successfully at the facility of Taneja Aerospace & Aviation Limited at Hosur in Tamil Nadu, south of Bengaluru. The test flight of the second Rustom-1 prototype lasted 30 minutes. The Rustom-1 is designed to have an endurance capability of 12 to 15 hours, to fly at an altitude of 25,000 feet and carry a payload of 75 kg. The Rustom-1 is a technology feeder programme for the proposed Rustom-H Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAV which is yet to fly.
According to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Rustom-1 is also a forerunner of the AURA, an advanced Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) being developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a premier DRDO lab specialising in UAVs and flight control systems.