Indigenous bomber unmanned aircraft developed by Bengaluru rm unveiled
With a max speed of 200 kts/370 kmph, it has an endurance capacity of 12-20 hours
Flying Wedge Defence, a city based defence and aerospace technology rm on Friday unveiled the FWD-200B unmanned aircraft.
The rm claimed that it is India’s rst indigenous bomber unmanned aircraft.
“While the U.S.
Predator costs a staggering ₹250 crore, our indigenous FWD-200B, built with state-of-the-art technology and manufactured in India, slashes the cost to a mere ₹25 crore. This not only demonstrates our commitment to self-reliance but also positions India as a leader in cost-e¡ective defence solutions,” Suhas Tejaskanda, founder, Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace said.
The FWD-200B has a payload capacity of 100 kgs and is classied as a MALE Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (medium-altitude, long-endurance). The
Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) consists of optical surveillance payloads and is integrated with missile-like weapons for precision air strikes.
Endurance capacity
With a max speed of 200 kts/370 kmph, it has an endurance capacity of 12-20 hours. “The FWD-200B can carry a maximum takeo¡ weight of 498 Kgs in addition to this, it holds a ground control station (GCS) range of 200 kms,” the company said. Tejaskanda said that ight tests on the full-scale model of the FWD-200B would be carried out later this month and next month the company would be observing the entire ight dynamics and behaviour of the aircraft.
“By the next three months, we should be able to get it to the Centre for
Military Airworthiness & Certication (CEMILAC) and get the certication done. Once the certication is done we will be ready to induct this into the forces. Our aim is to sell it to other countries like African and South East Asian countries as well which cannot $32 billion Predator UAVs but can buy $3 billion Indian products,” Tejaskanda said.