DRDO’s Flying Wing Technology Demonstrator

In a major breakthrough, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully carried out the maiden test flight of Autonomous Flying Wing Technology Demonstrator from the Aeronautical Test Range, Chitradurga, Karnataka.

• The Autonomous Flying Wing Technology Demonstrator is a precursor to an autonomous stealthy unmanned aerial combat vehicles (UCAV) being developed by the DRDO’s Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), primarily for the Indian Air Force.
  • The UCAV will be capable of launching missiles and precision-guided munitions.
• The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is powered by a small turbofan engine.
• It is a reduced sized autonomous aircraft.
  • The engine used is Russian TRDD-50MT originally designed for cruise missiles.
• Developed by: Assembled, designed and developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bengaluru.
  • The airframe, undercarriage and entire flight control and avionics systems used for the aircraft had been developed indigenously.

The need (no-import policy)

• To address the immediate requirement of the Armed Forces, India had procured UAVs from the US under an emergency procurement lease but government has adopted a no- import policy of UAVs.
• This has spurred the effort towards indigenization where DRDO and industry have demonstrated advanced capabilities.

Significance of the successful flight

• The flight marks a major breakthrough in developing autonomous technology demonstration under its unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) programme.
• Indigenization: It is a significant step towards self-reliance in such strategic defence technologies.
• This is the crucial step for the stealth wing flying testbed.
  • SWiFT UAV is targeted to showcase the capability in developing stealth technology and high-speed landing technology.