Indigenous UAV Rustom-I cruises at 3.5km altitude

Indigenously designed and developed unmanned aerial vehicle Rustom-1 made its 14th successful flight this morning at Kolar, attaining a cruise height of around 11,500 ft above ground level at over 140 kmph during a two hour and 10 minute cruise.

PS Krishnan, director, ADE, said that the flight was successful.

"All the parameters were achieved by the UAV which weigh around 690 Kg and the total performance was satisfactory," Krishnan said.

A defence ministry statement disclosed the following highlights of the flight:

Use of lean mixture control system in the engine for flights at high altitudes.
Takeoff weight was the heaviest so far.

Achieved maximum altitude of 3.5 kms, or about 11,500 ft.
Extended range of about 50 km was tried out for the first time. The waypoint track was perfect and so were takeoff and landing.

This UAV has the potential to be deployed for military missions like reconnaissance and surveillance, target acquisition, target designation, communications relay, battle damage assessment and signal intelligence.

"This UAV can attain a maximum altitude of 22,000 ft and endurance of 12-15 hours with an operating range of 250 km when fully developed," the statement concluded.

This unmanned aerial vehicle, developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a DRDO lab at Bangalore, had made its maiden flight in November 2009.