India’s Rustom-2 UAV gets massive upgrade, will soar to 27,000 feet in April

Rustom-2, India’s medium-altitude long-endurance drone being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, is targeted to achieve a huge milestone in April when it will take off from its test range in

Karnataka’s Chitradurga to fly for more than 18 hours at a height of over 27,000 feet, people familiar with the development said.

Rustom-2, also known as Tapas-BH (Tactical Airborne Platform for Aerial Surveillance-Beyond Horizon 201),

successfully completed the last flight test in October last year when it successfully flew for eight hours at an altitude of 16,000 feet.

“This will be a huge step,” said a senior government official about the

indigenously-developed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed for strategic reconnaissance and surveillance operations. Rustom-1