The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Friday successfully flight-tested Abhyas High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) from the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur, off the Bay of Bengal coast in Odisha. After the flight test, the ministry of defence said in a statement that the target aircraft will meet the requirements of HEAT for the armed forces. 

Defence minister Rajnath Singh congratulated DRDO for the successful flight trial of Abhyas, which was carried out as a part of developmental flight trials.

Designed and developed by DRDO’s Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), the indigenous unmanned aerial vehicle will be used as a target for the evaluation of various missile systems. Abhyas HEAT is launched using twin under-slung boosters which provide the initial acceleration to the vehicle. 

The state-of-the-art UAV is powered by a small gas turbine engine to sustain a long endurance flight at subsonic speed.

The ministry of defence said that the performance of the target aircraft was monitored through telemetry and various tracking sensors. The expression of interest for the production of the vehicle has already been floated to Indian industries, it added.

Terming Abhyas as a force multiplier, DRDO Chairman Dr G Satheesh Reddy congratulated the teams associated with the successful flight test of the aerial target which demonstrated the accuracy and effectiveness of the UAV.

Abhyas HEAT is equipped with a MEMS-based Inertial Navigation System (INS) for navigation along with the Flight Control Computer (FCC) for guidance and control. According to the ministry, the vehicle is programmed for fully autonomous flight and their check-out is done using a laptop-based Ground Control Station (GCS).