DRDO conducts successful flight test of ABHYAS, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh calls it milestone

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Tuesday conducted successful flight-tests of the indigenously-designed Abhyas High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) in Balasore. “During the trials, two demonstrator vehicles were successfully test flown. The vehicle can be used as target for evaluation of various missile systems,” the Ministry of Defebce said in a statement.

Hailing the achievement, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted: “The DRDO achieved a milestone today with the successful flight test of ABHYAS – High Speed Expandable Aerial Target from ITR Balasore. This can be used as a target for evaluation of various Missile systems.” He also congratulated DRDO and “other stakeholders for this achievement” in his tweet.

Abhyas is designed and developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), DRDO. The air vehicle is launched using twin underslung booster. It is powered by a small gas turbine engine and has MEMS based Inertial Navigation System (INS) for navigation along with the Flight Control Computer (FCC) for guidance and control. The vehicle is programmed for fully autonomous flight. The check out of air vehicle is done using laptop based Ground Control Station (GCS).

During the test campaign, the user requirement of 5 km flying altitude, vehicle speed of 0.5 mach, endurance of 30 minutes and 2g turn capability of the test vehicle were successfully achieved, the statement added.