ABHYAS: High-speed Expendable Aerial Target

Category
Science & Technology
Published
2nd Nov, 2021

Context

The Abhyas High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) has been successfully flight-tested by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) from the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur, off the Bay of Bengal coast in Odisha recently.

About

Key-points

The ABHYAS has been designed and developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) of DRDO.
- ADE is involved in the construction and development of state-of-the-art Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Aeronautical Systems and technologies to meet the needs of Indian Armed Forces (IAF).
- It is a leading Aeronautical Systems Design laboratory under the
Features: To support a long-lasting aircraft at subsonic speed, it is powered by a gas turbine engine.
- The vehicle is designed for fully automatic aircraft and its check-out is performed using a laptop-based Ground Control Station (GCS).
- Based on Inertial Navigation System (INS) navigation and Flight Control Computer (FCC), it is installed with MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) for guidance and control.
Utility: It will provide a realistic scenario that threatens the practice of weapons systems and will be used as a test target for various missile systems.

Other Recent Developments by DRDO

In October 2020, the DRDO conducted a successful flight test of the Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo (SMART) from Wheeler Island off the coast of Odisha.
In February 2021, India successfully test-fired indigenously-developed anti-tank guided missile systems ‘Dhruvastra’ and ‘Helina’.
In June 2021, a new generation nuclear capable ballistic missile Agni-P (Prime) was successfully test-fired by the DRDO.
In July 2021, DRDO launched the Man Portable Anti Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM) and the Akash-NG (New Generation).
In September 2021, the DRDO tested a new version of the Akash Missile – ‘Akash Prime’ – from the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur, Odisha.