UAVs

India's state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has announced plans to develop a stealthy demonstrator intended to prove "the technical feasibility, military utility and operational value of a networked system of high performance, unmanned combat air vehicles" (UCAV).

The DRDO's chief controller of research and development for aeronautics and material sciences Dr Dipankar Banerjee says the Bangalore-based Aeronautical Development Establishment will lead development work on the UCAV, which will have a swept wing and use composite materials.

"Stealth, which is an important feature of the proposed UCAV, would require the powerplant to be internally mounted and of a non-afterburning turbofan type," he says. Details of the air vehicle's payload and endurance have yet to be finalised.

Separately, the DRDO also hopes to attract a private sector partner to participate in its medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned air vehicle project, which is expected to deliver a surveillance system with a 24h endurance at altitudes up to 35,000ft (10,700m).

Banerjee says the single piston-engine-powered UAV - due to fly in 2010 - will feature autonomous take-off and landing, and could pave the way for India's development of a high-altitude long-endurance UAV.