Indian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
Made for Indian Army, this UAV was developed by DRDO’s branch, Aeronautical Development Establishment. It requires a launching system with catapult technology as it doesn’t have self-propelling ability and gets down with the help of a parachute.
- It is a multi-mission Unmanned Aerial Vehicle launched using a Mobile Hydro pneumatic Launcher with Day/Night capability used for battlefield surveillance and reconnaissance, target tracking & localization, and artillery fire correction.
- A sophisticated image processing system is used for analyzing the images transmitted from the UAV. The air vehicle has autonomous flight capabilities and is controlled from a user friendly Ground Control Station.
- Nishant is a highly mobile, compact and easily deployable system. It is recovered with Aero Conical Parachute and impact attenuation system. An onboard flight control and navigation system enables the aircraft to fly in autonomous Way Point Navigation mode.
- Nishant has been inducted in Indian Army.
Nishant Recovery parachute system
- Nishant Recovery parachute system is used to recover the Nishant UAV safely on ground after completion of intended task.
Panchi
- Panchi is a variant of Nishant (launcher based tactical UAV) with capability of conventional take-off and landing.
- Panchi is integrated with an all composite landing gear and has improved flight envelope and endurance.
- Panchi carries a stabilized payload platform. It carries payloads like daylight camera, infrared camera and laser designator. It is powered with an indigenously developed rotary Wankel engine.
- It has state of art systems, capable of surveillance, reconnaissance, target location detection and artillery fire correction.
- It is an unnamed combat air vehicle, a production of DRDO dedicated to all three services of Indian armed forces.
- RUSTOM-1 is an all composite, 800 kg class Short Range Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (SR-RPAS) having capabilities of Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, Target Acquisition/ Tracking and Image Exploitation.
- Rustom-1 is the first Indian RPAS to have conventional take-off and landing capability. It has autonomous flight mode and Get-To-Home features.
- Rustom 2 is being developed on the lines of predator drones of the US to carry out surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) roles for the armed forces with an endurance of 24 hours
