Ghatak and Rustom Indigenous UAV Programs

armed forces trials are still pending I don't see it getting inducted In foreseeable future.
There is still no clear definition from Armed Forces for a UAV of this capability. All they have is AoN on import of 30 MALE UAVs with secondary strike capabilities till now. Herons are there but they have their own limitations.

First the armed forces need to come clean on their requirements.
 
There is still no clear definition from Armed Forces for a UAV of this capability. All they have is AoN on import of 30 MALE UAVs with secondary strike capabilities till now. Herons are there but they have their own limitations.

First the armed forces need to come clean on their requirements.
rustom is a dead project I hope ADE is designing a much bigger UAV with better payload.
 
There is still no clear definition from Armed Forces for a UAV of this capability. All they have is AoN on import of 30 MALE UAVs with secondary strike capabilities till now. Herons are there but they have their own limitations.

First the armed forces need to come clean on their requirements.
Rustom's were not suppose to be armed. But can be armed. All three services have different requirements. Thus they are making three prototypes for each.

rustom is a dead project I hope ADE is designing a much bigger UAV with better payload.
There is no other big UAV project under DRDO or HAL. ADA is working on Ghatak, but thats nowhere near flying.
 

It's a part of why I think even AWACS are going to be useless in the near future. It's pretty much the same reason for the cancellation of the drones. You simply end up paying a lot of money for a capability you cannot use during war.

The future is gonna be stealth drones, or even swarm drones, capable of operating very close to where the intelligence needs to be collected from.

As for Japan, I don't think they will be able to escape from the deal, since it's already ongoing. But it may be possible to renegotiate and switch to the RQ-180 instead. It's the stealth equivalent of the RQ-4, estimated to have an endurance of 24 hours with global range. It's a penetrating ISR, so it's made for the future battlefield. But there's a pretty good chance it's in their "not for export" category.

Same deal with us, the IN can't operate the Triton in contested airspace.
 
Was at the park with my dog, and a few kids were flying some quadcopters. I was thinking how difficult it would be to shoot these hihgly agile drones with small arms, and how these could be significantly useful as anti-personnel devices with a small shaped charge on them. Even like an actual missile or even a large UAV dropping a swarm on top of infantry or a mechanized column, a bunch of miniature kamikaze drones could wreak havoc.
Similarly Wheeled drones carrying shaped charge which sit dormant on the desert floor and can get activated when it sees a hostile vehicles moving, essentially becoming adaptive smart mines.
There is a lot of lethality to leverage from drones, I hope the services are paying attention.
 
Rustom 2 / Tapas MALE ( medium altitude long endurance ) UAV integrated with long range EO pod

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@Ashwin @randomradio @Ankit Kumar @RISING SUN @hellbent et al.........

Does anybody know the intake dimensions of the NPO Saturn 36MT engine ? That engine was to be used for the Swift flight trials. I found this :
Screenshot (93).png
Screenshot (94).png
Screenshot (95).png


I believe these simulations were for the SWIFT. If that's correct then the serpentine duct outlet diameter should be in range of the NPO Saturn 36MT. On their website they have put out the max dia and min dia, but no intake dia.
 
@Ashwin @randomradio @Ankit Kumar @RISING SUN @hellbent et al.........

Does anybody know the intake dimensions of the NPO Saturn 36MT engine ? That engine was to be used for the Swift flight trials. I found this :
View attachment 18058View attachment 18059View attachment 18060

I believe these simulations were for the SWIFT. If that's correct then the serpentine duct outlet diameter should be in range of the NPO Saturn 36MT. On their website they have put out the max dia and min dia, but no intake dia.
 
Yes I have seen this, max dia is given. For turbofans the rule of thumb is high-bypass engines have max dia on the intake section & low-bypass engines have max dia at the combustor section. Thus the max dia give here here could be the combustor dia of the 36MT, though it really comes down to the design of the individual engine.

Are there any engineering designs of missiles that use the 36MT ? That might give us the answer.
 
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@Ashwin @randomradio @Ankit Kumar @RISING SUN @hellbent et al.........

Does anybody know the intake dimensions of the NPO Saturn 36MT engine ? That engine was to be used for the Swift flight trials. I found this :
View attachment 18058View attachment 18059View attachment 18060

I believe these simulations were for the SWIFT. If that's correct then the serpentine duct outlet diameter should be in range of the NPO Saturn 36MT. On their website they have put out the max dia and min dia, but no intake dia.
Intake diameter depends solely on the amount of airflow needed. It has nothing to do with the diameter of the engine.
 
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Intake diameter depends solely on the amount of airflow needed. It has nothing to do with the diameter of the engine.
That's true but we have to physically mate the outlet end of the intake duct with the inlet of the engine. For that they need to be similar in diameters.
flight control laws validated.
View attachment 18068
Simulations complete then ? Nice. When was the SWIFT test flight scheduled again ?
 
That's true but we have to physically mate the outlet end of the intake duct with the inlet of the engine. For that they need to be similar in diameters.

Simulations complete then ? Nice. When was the SWIFT test flight scheduled again ?
According to roadmap it should be ready by Dec 2020 so it's first flight will take place in next year. Right now it is under fabrication.