During the trial, two demonstration vehicles were successfully tested, DRDO sources said.
New Delhi:
India on Tuesday successfully conducted the flight test of ABHYAS – consumable high-speed aerial target vehicles (HEAT) from a test field in Odisha, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted.
Congratulating the DRDO on its accomplishment, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said ABHYAS can be used as a target for missile system evaluation.
“The DRDO took a milestone today with the successful flight test of ABHYAS – ITR Balasore High Speed Extendable Aerial Target. This can be used as a target for the evaluation of various missile systems. Congratulations to @DRDO_India and other stakeholders for this achievement, “he tweeted.
The test, conducted by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) of Integrated Test Line (ITR) at Chandipur near Balasore of Odisha, was monitored by various radars and electro-optical systems, defense sources said.
In Tuesday’s trial, two demonstration vehicles were successfully tested, DRDO sources said.
ABHYAS was designed and developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) of the DRDO.
The aerial vehicle is launched using two suspended boosters. It is powered by a small gas turbine engine and has an inertial navigation system (INS) as well as a flight control computer (FCC) for guidance and control.
The vehicle has been programmed for fully autonomous flight. Control of the vehicle is done using a laptop-based ground control station (GCS), according to a defense statement.
During the test campaign, the user’s requirement of a flight altitude of 5 km, vehicle speed of 0.5 mach, endurance of 30 minutes, and capacity of the test vehicle’s 2g turn was reached, he said.
“It has proven its performance in a fully autonomous waypoint navigation mode,” added a DRDO source.
