Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) said on Monday that it successfully carried out four flight trials of High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT), making its product which can be used for weapon system firing practice, ready for production and export to friendly countries.

Four flights of ABHYAS, designed by the DRDO’s Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) and called as ‘ABHYAS’, were successfully carried out from the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur in Odisha, from January 30 to February 2, it officially stated. HEAT will be used as an airborne object to target by missiles and other payloads during trials and pratice sessions.

The trials, elaborated the DRDO, were conducted with four different mission objectives in a revised robust configuration using a single booster designed by Advanced Systems Laboratory, Hyderabad, to provide reduced launch acceleration. The objectives, as per the DRDO, like safe release of booster, launcher clearance and attaining the required end of launch velocity were achieved. The flight trials validated various parameters like required endurance, speed, manoeuvrability, altitude and range.

“ABHYAS offers a realistic threat scenario for practice of weapon systems. It is designed for autonomous flying with the help of an auto pilot indigenously made by the ADE. It has Radar Cross Section, Visual and Infrared augmentation system required for weapon practice. It has a laptop-based Ground Control System with which the aircraft can be integrated and pre-flight checks, data recording during the flight, replay after the flight and post-flight analysis can be carried out,” the DRDO said in a statement.

The DRDO said that the HEAT requires minimum logistics and is cost effective compared to imported equivalents. The systems tested recently were realised through production agencies – Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Defence. With identified production agencies, ABHYAS is ready for production and has export potential to friendly countries, the DRDO informed.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated the DRDO, the armed forces and the industry for the successful flight trial of ABHYAS. “The development of this system will meet the requirements of aerial targets for the Armed Forces,” he said.

Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO Dr Samir V Kamat appreciated the efforts of the teams associated in the design, development and testing of the system.

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