Rustom 2/TAPAS/BH-201 MALE UAV News Updates and Discussions

[Prashant12]

CVRDE Chennai has designed & developed a desi landing gear (2.0 tonne class) for #Rustom-2. The maiden flight of #Rustom-2 with new landing gear was successfully carried out today at ATR Chitradurga.

 

[ezsasa]

They should speed up the development process, We can't delay it further. Makes us force to go for foreign stuff.

The development phase will always be slow because tenders are given at component level to vendors, each sub component procurement cycle can take anywhere between 3-6 months for completion.

 

[Enquirer]

CVRDE Chennai has designed & developed a desi landing gear (2.0 tonne class) for #Rustom-2. The maiden flight of #Rustom-2 with new landing gear was successfully carried out today at ATR Chitradurga.

Anantha Krishnan made a mistake.
The landing gear designed by CVRDE is for a 3.0 tonne class UAV (DRDO newsletter has a full description of Rustom program!)

 

[Kshithij]

They should speed up the development process, We can't delay it further. Makes us force to go for foreign stuff.

India is also planning to induct Rustom-1 in place of Heron TP.

CVRDE Chennai has designed & developed a desi landing gear (2.0 tonne class) for #Rustom-2. The maiden flight of #Rustom-2 with new landing gear was successfully carried out today at ATR Chitradurga.

According to DRDO newsletter, it is 3 ton landing gear:

 

[sachin458377]

I

India is also planning to induct Rustom-1 in place of Heron TP.


According to DRDO newsletter, it is 3 ton landing gear:
View attachment 26797

Cluster bombs and hydrogen bomb is missing

 

[Craigs]

The development phase will always be slow because tenders are given at component level to vendors, each sub component procurement cycle can take anywhere between 3-6 months for completion.

Are tenders floated in serial fashion or parallel???

 

[ezsasa]

Are tenders floated in serial fashion or parallel???

My observation is that they are usually serial with gaps in between.

This particular tender was for 10 prototypes more than 6 months back, if I remember correctly.

 

[Craigs]

My observation is that they are usually serial with gaps in between.

This particular tender was for 10 prototypes more than 6 months back, if I remember correctly.

Then we are f*****d. By the time we have anything resembling a pre production model it will be totally outdated.

 

[Kshithij]

But that's not a UCAV I guess. In regions like Kashmir what is required for CT op is a UCAV

India will not use UCAV on its own population. Otherwise, you would be seeing usage of ATGM, tanks etc which do not happen. Even Rustom-2 is mostly a UAV with UCAV part being rarely used. It just can carry 4 missiles for contingency.

 

[Enquirer]

Some folks are posting nonsense like Rustom-1 is UCAV!
Rustom-1 was photo op'd with two Helina canisters slung under Rustom-1 just to taxi around. It never flew then nor is there any effort to make it fly with Helinas.
Fanboys always have premature ejaculations!!!

 

[ezsasa]

Then we are f*****d. By the time we have anything resembling a pre production model it will be totally outdated.

bit more bad news, this is my post from 2015. it took the procurement and assembly process about 2.5 years, assuming this is the same landing gear in discussion.

Looks like CVRDE is developing landing gear for Rustom-2. One of the tender says they are developing landing gear for 2 ton UAV. i am assuming it is Rustom 2 and not AURA.

 

[Enquirer]

bit more bad news, this is my post from 2015. it took the procurement and assembly process about 2.5 years, assuming this is the same landing gear in discussion.

No it's not the same landing gear. The initial attempt was to develop a landing gear for a 2 tonne UAV. But then it became clear that the heavier (more powerful) engines and the extra fuel (for the required endurance & the extra weight) will take the all-up weight to 3 tonnes Rustom/Tapas was officially classified as a 3 tonne UAV; and CVRDE started designing a 3 tonne landing gear.
So, the 2.5 years that you're counting didn't just involve actual procurement & assembly but also REDESIGN!
(Anantha Krishnan's tweet wrongly identifies it as 2 tonne landing gear)

 

[G10]

Landing gear for Tejas was over weight and over designed they say. Is this landing gear good?

 

[ezsasa]

@Enquirer
it was indeed 2 ton not 3 ton.
==============================================
Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE), Avadi has designed & developed the indigenous Landing Gear for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Rustom II of 2.0 tonne class for the first time in the country.

 

[Enquirer]

@Enquirer
it was indeed 2 ton not 3 ton.
==============================================
Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE), Avadi has designed & developed the indigenous Landing Gear for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Rustom II of 2.0 tonne class for the first time in the country.

I've never heard of this "Def_PRO_Chennai" twitter handle. "writetake" (Anantha Krishnan) is definitely more reliable (even though I feel he might have made an error).
I could be wrong, if CVRDE has initially only come up with 2 tonne retractable-landing-gear as a precusor to the final 3 tonne RLG.
If the tweets are accurate then there's not much to rejoice as 2 tonne RLG is not the final product!

 

[Enquirer]

I've never heard of this "Def_PRO_Chennai" twitter handle. "writetake" (Anantha Krishnan) is definitely more reliable (even though I feel he might have made an error).
I could be wrong, if CVRDE has initially only come up with 2 tonne retractable-landing-gear as a precusor to the final 3 tonne RLG.
If the tweets are accurate then there's not much to rejoice as 2 tonne RLG is not the final product!

@ezsasa
Here's a pamphlet on Rustom-II landing gear. It appears that the RLG is designed to take the shock of 2.4 tonnes. Which probably might mean that Rustom (post sortie) with much of the fuel burnt up (before landing) could weigh as much as 2.4 tonnes. Rustom-II's MTOW would still be 3 tonnes.

It's the norm in aircraft design that the landing gear is always designed for a weight less than the MTOW, with the expectation that much of the fuel would be spent up before landing - it's the reason why aircraft always dump fuel if they need to return to airport within a short time after takeoff.

 

[Enquirer]

@ezsasa
Here's a pamphlet on Rustom-II landing gear. It appears that the RLG is designed to take the shock of 2.4 tonnes. Which probably might mean that Rustom (post sortie) with much of the fuel burnt up (before landing) could weigh as much as 2.4 tonnes. Rustom-II's MTOW would still be 3 tonnes.

It's the norm in aircraft design that the landing gear is always designed for a weight less than the MTOW, with the expectation that much of the fuel would be spent up before landing - it's the reason why aircraft always dump fuel if they need to return to airport within a short time after takeoff.

@ezsasa

But then this pamphlet is from 2015. The 3 tonne config for Rustom-II came about later.
If CVRDE just completed/fitted the old design onto Rustom, then no cheers at all - it's just an interim product. But it might still be good enough for them to carry out tests without all payload (or full fuel) piled onto a single prototype. They have nearly 8-10 prototypes to test simultaneously!

 

[Kshithij]

DRDO develops indigenous landing gear for UAV

An indigenously designed and developed landing gear for the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-Rustom II has been successfully tested today, a Defence statement said.

The landing gear developed by a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratory here has undergone low-speed and high-speed taxi trial in Chitradurga, Karnataka, it said.

The maiden flight of Rustom II with the indigenously developed gear was successfully carried out.

"The Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE), the main laboratory of DRDO, has designed and developed the gear," the statement said.

Rustom II is a medium-altitude long-endurance UAV designed for carrying out surveillance for the armed forces.

The CVRDE is involved in the development of armoured fighter vehicles and tanks among others.

 

[patriots]

The engine is being developed by converting an existing and proven automotive engine under manufacture in India. During 2017 1st firing of indigenous UAV engine was carried out and running-in carried out for 30 h.

 

[Enquirer]

Here's a crazy idea:

How about implement auto-pilot on Mig21, use embed Rustom's datalink etc and turn Mig21s into unmanned bombers ??? (can easily do this out to a range of 400kms combat radius)

Worst case they be sent on a one-way trip with 1000 kg explosive out to 1500kms!!

There're nearly 300 Mig21s!!!

Manned fighters need to be regularly put in training sorties in order to keep the pilots adept at their skills. Once it's turned into unmanned, they don't need to be flown as often, because the operator training could be 90% on a simulator, as such the life of the aircraft can be preserved for decades. If it crashes, no big deal!!

(India implemented auto-pilot on Jaguars! Not to make it unmanned though)