In the first week of January 2020, two MQ-9 Reaper drones took off from an airbase in Kuwait and travelled 600 km to hover over Baghdad international airport. Seconds after the green signal, the drones fired missiles IN to knock out two cars that were leaving the airport. The attack killed Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, head of Iran's Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chairman of Hashd alShaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces), an Iran-backed militia in Iraq. The Reapers' precision stunned the world.
Two and a half years later, India's defence scientists showed the world that the country too has the capability to carry out such precision strikes. The DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) announced that it has successfully tested a combat drone, also called the 'autonomous flying wing technology demonstrator' at the aeronautical test range in Karnataka's Chitradurga. The drone did not stay aloft for the full test time of an hour, but it was enough to send a message to the world about India's growing unmanned offensive capability.
Designed and developed by the DRDO's Bangaluru-based Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), the Stealth Wing Flying Testbed (SWIFT) UAV is a technology demonstrator and a prototype (scaled-down version) for the upcoming unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) also known as the Ghatak combat drone. While the SWIFT weighs just one tonne, the Ghatak UCAV is expected to be 13 tonnes.
The SWIFT project was sanctioned in 2016 with barely Rs 70 crore in funds. Its main intent was to demonstrate and prove the stealth technology and high-speed landing technology in autonomous mode, says a defence scientist.
The SWIFT project was sanctioned in 2016 and got Rs 70 crore in funds with the proviso that it would demonstrate and prove the stealth technology
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A Life IN MUSIC
To celebrate five decades of a storied musical career, Padma Shri Hariharan is headlining a special concert in Delhi on November 30
MURDERS MOST FOUL
SAMYUKTA BHOWMICK'S DEBUT NOVEL, A FATAL DISTRACTION, IS A WHODUNIT THAT GOES BEYOND MERELY PAYING TRIBUTE TO THE MASTERS OF THE GENRE
Jungle Book
Avtar Singh creates a compelling tableau of characters brought together and torn asunder by migration, epidemic and circumstance
BON VOYAGE
The award-winning stage adaptation of Yann Martel's Life of Pi is coming to Mumbai this December
Earning His ACTING CHOPS
HIS LATEST STINT IN THE BUCKINGHAM MURDERS, WHICH JUST RELEASED ON NETFLIX, CEMENTS THE MULTI-HYPHENATE RANVEER BRAR'S REPUTATION AS A FINE ACTOR
Strike a Pose
SOONI TARAPOREVALA'S SERIES DEBUT WAACK GIRLS ON PRIME VIDEO SHINES A LIGHT ON THE STREET DANCE STYLE OF WAACKING
FATAL ATTRACTION
In I Want to Talk, Shoojit Sircar continues his exploration of death with the portrait of a tenacious man who beats it time and again
LOVE LETTER TO THE MOUNTAINS
'Journeying Across the Himalayas' is a new multidisciplinary festival in Delhi with a focus on the Himalayan region and its communities
The Art of CURATION
Sunil Kant Munjal, founder patron of the Serendipity Arts Foundation, on how one of our biggest multi-disciplinary festivals came about and what to look forward to in this edition
THE ROCKY ROAD AHEAD
A US court's allegations of bribery in solar power contracts and US markets watchdog SEC's charges of concealing wrongdoings have jolted Gautam Adani's business empire. Even as he mounts a strong defence against the indictment, the group faces a crisis of investor confidence that may impact its growth plans
