Updated By: LatestGKGS Desk
DRDO: Rustom II Drones To Be Inducted In Armed Forces By 2020
DRDO: Rustom-II Drones (UAVs) To Be Inducted In Indian Armed Forces By 2020- Details, Features, Purpose, About
As per the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) official release, indigenously developed Rustom-II Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) will be delivered to armed forces by the year 2020.
Rustom-II currently, is under development as its basic system is being improved and attempts are being made to increase its flight altitude.
Rustom-II manufacturing will be done by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Ltd.
Rustom-II is part of Rustom line of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) indigenously designed and developed by DRDO that includes Rustom-I, Rustom-H and Rustom-C. It is being developed for use of all three services of Indian Armed Forces, primarily for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations
Rustom-II is a long-endurance UAV that has a 20 hours approximate flight time. Its medium-altitude prototype can fly at over 22,000 feet.
Rustom-II is propelled by two 3-bladed NPO Saturn engines (each producing over 450 kg-force thrust). It stands 2.4m tall with a wingspan of 20.6m and length of 9.5m. It can fly at around 280 km/h.
Rustom-II critical systems and components like airframe, flight control, avionics sub-systems, landing gear etc, have been made indigenously and some in collaboration with private manufacturers.
Rustom-II can carry variety of payloads like Long Range Electro-Optic (LREO), Medium Range Electro-Optic (MREO), Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Communication Intelligence (COMINT), Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) and Situational Awareness Payloads (SAP) that help in performing missions even during the night
