Even though LTTE threat to Kerala turned out to a bogus one, few things came to light on Monday as far as India’s preparation to curb terrorism is concerned. It was never official that Indian Navy is using UAVs on the Indian coast. That became official as it was clear that “LTTE in Kochi” turned out to be a “false alarm” from the Navy’s UAV Nishanth.
Nishant was developed by DRDO for Indian Army. It was successfully flight tested near Kolar on 20th June 2008. The State of Art UAV is developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bangalore jointly with DEAL, Dehradun; RDE(E), Pune and ADRDE, Agra.
Nishant is one of the few UAVs in the World in its weight class capable of being catapult launch and recovered by using parachute thus eliminating need for runway as in the case of conventional take off and landing with wheels. The tactical highlights of NISHANT include multi-mission day/night capability using advance payloads, jam resistant command link and digital down link. It is a highly mobile, compact and easily deployable system and can undertake day/night battle field reconnaissance, surveillance, target tracking and localization. It can also help in correction of artillery fire. With an endurance capacity of 4 hours and 30 minutes, it can attain maximum speed of 185 km per hour.
DRDO is also taking up a programme for development of Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAV that has multi-mission capability to meet the requirements of the three Services. RUSTAM, named after Rustam Damania, who was instrumental in conceptualizing the idea, will have 300 km range with 200 kg payload. RUSTAM will be in a flying stage in about 3 years. With an endurance level of more than 24 hours, this UAV can be used by all three armed forces. RUSTAM can be useful in reconnaissance and surveillance, target acquisition and designation, communications relay and signal intelligence.
