NEW DELHI \u2014 India will rely on domestic firms to develop and build its first unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), similar to the Predator drone built by US-based General Atomics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will fund 80 percent of the development and prototype cost for the Rustom-2 UCAV, with the remaining 20 percent paid by private Indian defense companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the first time DRDO has invited private companies to develop prototypes under their guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In doing so, the Defence Ministry is reversing its decision to build Rustom-2 using only DRDO and state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), an MoD source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A MoD<\/span> source said the Rustom<\/span>-2 project was being funded by the government because the private companies had been lukewarm about building prototypes at their own expense and then have to compete for the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this category, the government funds up to 80 percent in the development of the prototype, while the remaining 20 percent is funded by the selected private development agency, the MoD<\/span> source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “[The] category is a suitable economic proposition to ensure greater involvement of private sector companies in developing defense projects, which is now being encouraged by the new government,” said defense analyst Nitin <\/span>Mehta<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An executive with domestic defense major Larsen & Toubro<\/span> (L&T) said the MoD<\/span> has agreed to commit to an unspecified number of Rustom<\/span>-2 UCAVs,<\/span> and L&T would like to participate in the project because the government would also fund the development of the prototype. “The financial commitment in the Rustom<\/span>-2 looks promising now,” the executive added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n India began its Rustom-<\/span>1 UAV in 2006 and initially wanted participation by domestic defense companies. However, after the MoD<\/span> failed to give firm commitments of orders to the selected company, none of the defense companies from the private sector participated. HAL then became the production agency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Weighing 1,800 kilograms, Rustom<\/span>-2 will have a payload of 350 kilograms, and a flight endurance of up to 48 hours. The two 100-horsepower engines will be capable of flying up to 36,000 feet with a range of 100 kilometers.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n The development cost of Rustom-<\/span>2 is estimated to be around $200 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n India’s domestic private sector defense companies including L&T, Tata<\/span> Power SED, Mahindra <\/span>Defence<\/span> System, Data Patterns India Pvt. Ltd. and Bharat<\/span> Forge Ltd. All are likely to be frontrunners to compete for the Rustom<\/span>-2 project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The MoD<\/span> source added that Rustom<\/span>-2 is a tri-service<\/span> requirement with initial order of 75. The cost of each Rustom<\/span>-2 would be around $5.83 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation will pay for most of the development of the Rustom-2 UCAV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":55281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":57,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[16,57,21],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3312],"class_list":["post-18099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-it-networks","category-uas","category-unmanned"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"73P5BZMXANAABDG7F6AV7VUYKM","arc_canonical_url":"\/unmanned\/uas\/2015\/01\/09\/india-s-combat-uav-to-come-from-domestic-firms\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n