India will have its own stealth combat drones…but in a decade! *Sigh*

India will finally develop its own stealth combat drones or UCAVs (unmanned combat aerial vehicles). These drones can fire missiles and head back home.

Sources said the government might approve a Rs 2,650 Crore Project Ghatak which has been cleared by the defense ministry. The project is apparently being evaluated by an expert committee set up by the finance ministry. Once approved, Project Ghatak will be placed before the cabinet committee on security for the final nod.

Project Ghatak is based on the earlier AURA (autonomous unmanned research aircraft) programme sanctioned in 2009 at a cost of mere Rs 12.50 Crore. The goal there was to carry out a ‘conceptual and feasibility study’. The Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh told Parliament earlier this month that the project was successfully completed in April 2013 within the schedule.

DRDO and IAF have now launched Project Ghatak to build an aerial vehicle that weighs lesser than a fighter jet. The UCAV will take at least a decade to become fully-operational.

Interestingly, the UCAV is expected to be powered by a ‘52-kilonewton dry variant’ of the indigenously-developed Kaveri aerospace engine, which could not be fitted into the Tejas light combat aircraft.

Image credit: Indiatimes