Defensenews.com reported that on Friday, July 1, India efficiently carried out the primary flight of the Stealth Wing Flying Testbed, or SWiFT, an autonomous drone know-how demonstrator. It’s a scaled-down model of the upcoming Ghatak fight drone. The 1-ton SWiFT platform is powered by a Russian NPO Saturn 36MT turbofan engine. The flight happened on the aeronautical take a look at vary based mostly at Chitradurga within the southern Indian state of Karnataka. The airframe, undercarriage, and flight management and avionics methods have been domestically developed. SWiFT demonstrated the flexibility to autonomously take off, climb, cruise, navigate to waypoints, descend and land. Watch a video of its take a look at flight.
A scientist with the Protection Analysis and Improvement Group famous that at the very least 10 extra flight assessments are wanted to show the aptitude of SWiFT, and solely then will the federal government grant funding for the full-fledged improvement of the Ghatak UAV. Protection Minister Rajnath Singh referred to as the flight a serious achievement towards autonomous plane that may pave the best way for Aatmanirbhar Bharat — an financial initiative meant to make India much less depending on overseas know-how — by way of important navy methods.
