Bhubaneswar: The test flight of High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) Abhyas was successfully conducted by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) from the Interim Test Range, Balasore on Tuesday.
Two demonstrator vehicles were successfully test flown during the trials. The vehicle can be used as target for evaluation of various missile systems.
The Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) of DRDO has designed and developed the Abhyas. The air vehicle is launched using twin underslung booster. It is powered by a small gas turbine engine and has MEMS based Inertial Navigation System (INS) along with the Flight Control Computer (FCC) for guidance and control.
The vehicle is programmed for fully autonomous flight. The check out of air vehicle is done using laptop-based Ground Control Station (GCS).
During the test campaign, the user requirement of 5 km flying altitude, vehicle speed of 0.5 mach, endurance of 30 minutes and 2g turn capability of the test vehicle were successfully achieved.
