New Delhi: Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) conducted a successful flight test of ABHYAS – High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) from Interim Test Range, Chandipur in Odisha today. The flight test was tracked by various RADARS & Electro-Optic Systems and proved its performance in a fully autonomous waypoint navigation mode.
ABHYAS is designed and developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment of DRDO.
The air vehicle is launched using a twin underslung booster. It is powered by a small gas turbine engine and has a MEMS-based Inertial Navigation System for navigation along with the Flight Control Computer for guidance and control.
The vehicle is programmed for fully autonomous flight. The check out of the air vehicle is done using a laptop-based Ground Control Station.
The performance of the system was as per simulations carried out and demonstrated the capability of ABHYAS to meet the mission requirement for a cost-effective HEAT.
During the test campaign, the user requirement of 5 kilometers flying altitude, vehicle speed of 0.5 mach, the endurance of 30 minutes and 2g turn capability of the test vehicle were successfully achieved.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today said that DRDO achieved a milestone today with the successful flight test of ABHYAS – High Speed Expandable Aerial Target from ITR Balasore.
In a tweet, Mr Singh congratulated DRDO and other stakeholders for the achievement and said this can be used as a target for evaluation of various Missile systems.