DRDO's MALE UAV Archer-NG to take first sortie next month; weaponised version expected in 3 years
DRDO's Archer-NG, an advanced MALE UAV designed for surveillance and combat, will take its first flight next month. The weaponised version will follow in three years.
FollowBengaluru: Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is waiting for clearance certification for its advanced Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Archer-NG (Next Generation) to conduct the first flight. It is expected that the UAV will take first sortie next month.
The weaponised version will take another three years to be completed.
Designed and developed for a number of roles, including surveillance and combat, the Archer-NG has completed the taxi trials, recently.
Asianet Newsable spoke to Archer-NG’s Project Director Vivek Kumar Patwey to understand about the platform’s capabilities.
“Archer NG is our indigenously developed UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), a MALE (medium altitude long endurance) class UAV. Its main role is ISR (Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance). Other than surveillance purposes, it can be used for strike purposes.”
“It can carry 300-kg of weapons and also it is a cheaper and optimised version. It is a single engine version which is also called Single Engine Twin Boom (STEB). It is a weaponized UAV and can carry a plethora of payloads, including electro optics payloads, radar payloads and situational awareness payloads.”
“It can conduct the mission day and night, and also all weather. It has a very deep penetration role, it can work network centric, it can also be manned and unmanned teaming and can accomplish the mission,” Vivek Kumar Patwey said.
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“The range is beyond sight, we call it 1000-km, the altitude is 30,000-feet and endurance are up-to 34-hour. But normally we call it 24-hour with electro optics payloads.”
“It is in a very advanced stage of development. We are already conducting taxi trials and very soon we will be going for the first flight trial as we are waiting for certification clearance.”
“The final version with the weapon and other things will take another 3 years.”
“If we compare it to other UAVs, it is very close to Hermes. Heron Mk2 and MQ-9B are above it,” he said.
“The Indian Air Force is working together with us, providing requirements, and based on that, we have been able to develop this world-class platform,” Patwey added.
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