Bengaluru: The Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) has secured an order to manufacture, assembly, integration, testing and supply of High Speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) System known as ABHYAS from Aeronautical Development Establishment, DRDO.
Post successful completion of the initial order, HAL would be identified as Development-cum-Production Partner (DcPP) for supply of this target system along with a private firm (50 per cent of the volume). The platform is estimated to have large requirement from the tri-services and DRDO laboratories for evaluation trials of missile programs.
ABHYAS was first successfully flight-tested in May 2019 and subsequent evaluation trials are being conducted by ADE-DRDO. This order would mark the beginning of series production of ABHYAS. The Air vehicle is designed and developed by DRDO’s Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) in Bengaluru.
The air vehicle is launched using twin under-slung boosters, which provide initial acceleration to the vehicle and is powered by a gas turbine engine to sustain a long endurance flight at subsonic speed. The target aircraft is equipped with Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) based Inertial Navigation System (INS) for navigation along with the Flight Control Computer (FCC) for guidance and control.
The vehicle is programmed for fully autonomous flight. The check-out of air vehicles is done using laptop-based Ground Control Station (GCS).
