DRDO's Swift Test gives a boost to India’s AMCA Stealth Fighter, Ghatak Combat Drone Project

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DRDO's Swift Test gives a boost to India’s AMCA Stealth Fighter, Ghatak Combat Drone Project:

India has successfully tested its Autonomous Flying Wing Technology Demonstrator at the Aeronautical Test Range at Chitradurga, Karnataka, as announced by its Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) in a media statement released on July 1.

With this test, India’s dreams of seeing its indigenous Ghatak (Lethal) Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) and fifth-gen AMCA fighter jet have come closer to realisation.

“Operating in a fully autonomous mode, the aircraft exhibited a perfect flight, including take-off, waypoint navigation, and a smooth touchdown. This flight marks a major milestone in proving critical technologies towards the development of future unmanned aircraft and is a significant step towards self-reliance in such strategic defense technologies,” said the Indian Defense Ministry in a statement.

The unmanned aircraft, also known as the Stealth Wing Flying Testbed, or SWIFT, is a significant step in India’s attempt to indigenize its armed forces to reduce its reliance on foreign suppliers. The drone’s airframe, undercarriage, flight control and avionics systems are all indigenously-made, according to the Indian Ministry of Defense and as reported in Defense News.

Indian Defense Research Wing reports that India initiated its stealth drone program after the US refused to sell it Avenger jet-powered combat drones in 2017, forcing it to look for indigenous solutions to fulfill its requirement for an unmanned aircraft with low radar cross-section (RCS), high endurance and high speed for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and precision-strike missions.

The Ghatak program to improve the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) strike capabilities over hostile airspace and reduce human casualties in high-risk missions. A drone with a flying wing design may thus be the optimal solution for India’s requirements.

A stealthy drone such as the Ghatak may be the answer to bypassing formidable air defenses such as China’s HQ-9/P.

As such, India’s Ghatak drone may be like the US RQ-180 stealth drone, which Forbes describes as an unmanned stealth bomber designed by Northrop Grumman to fulfill a US Air Force requirement for long-range deep-penetration missions in heavily defended airspace.

Although judging by its dimensions, it may be more like the older RQ-170 Sentinel drone, which has the same task set as the RQ-180 but with comparatively limited capability due to its smaller dimensions.

Designed and developed by the Bengaluru-based Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a premier research laboratory under the DRDO, the test-bed UAV aircraft is powered by a small turbofan engine.

The engine is reportedly a Russian turbofan made by NPO-Saturn. The UAV’s airframe, undercarriage/landing gear, flight controls, and avionics system were developed indigenously.

Other DRDO facilities are also involved in the project significantly – the Defense Electronics Research Laboratory and the Chennai-based Combat Vehicle Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE). The CVRDE claims to have supplied the project’s highly complex retractable landing gear.

Called the Autonomous Unmanned Research Aircraft (AURA) around 2009, it was officially renamed Ghatak in 2015.

In  2015, the Aura project was redesignated as Ghatak. While the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) was the lead organization for the project’s development, some fundamental research and development of significant technologies were conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and IIT-Kanpur.

One of these involves low-speed tests on the serpentine intakes of the Ghatak’s and wind tunnel testing of a low radar cross-section engine intake.

SWiFT UAV is a Technology Demonstrator and is a scaled-down version of Ghatak UCAV (Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle). The main intent of SWiFT UAV is to demonstrate and prove the stealth technology and high-speed landing technology in autonomous mode,” the DRDO had said in an in-house bulletin.

“Based on the experience and domain expertise gained and milestones achieved in the design and development of LGS for 2-ton class UAV, landing gears for 25-ton class twin-engine Fighter Aircraft AMCA, has been taken up based on ADA’s requirements and design phase has started,” the bulletin added.

A scaled-up Ghatak will feature capabilities like network-centric data links, command and control, weapons carriage and release, fully autonomous uncrewed flights at longer ranges, satellite links, navigation systems, and electronics like electro-optical and flight control systems, target acquisition, and possibly Electronic Warfare (EW) suites.

The Ghatak programme formally received sanction as a ‘Lead-in Project’ in May 2016 and started receiving funding from early 2017.

Technical details about the UCAV project are not available due to its classified nature. Wrapped in secrecy, the programme is under the direct oversight of the Prime Minister’s Office and the National Security Advisor.

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