Abhyas – a High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT)

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About ABHYAS-

• Abhyas has been developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a Bengaluru-based facility of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
• Abhyas – an originally Sanskrit word for practice or preparatory exercise, offers a realistic threat scenario for practice of various weapon systems and has been designed for autonomous flying with the help of an autopilot system onboard.
• It was developed by adopting DRDO’s Lakshya,  its high-speed target drone system.
• The first launch of ABHYAS was held in Chitradurga Aeronautical Testing Range in 2012.
• The air vehicle was launched using twin under-slung boosters which provide the initial acceleration to the vehicle. 
• It is powered by a small gas turbine engine to sustain a long endurance flight at high subsonic speed. 
• The target aircraft is equipped with Micro-Electromechanical Systems-based Inertial Navigation System for navigation along with the Flight Control Computer for guidance and control.
• It is also equipped with Indigenous Radio Altimeter for very low altitude flight and Data Link for encrypted communication between the Ground Control Station and Target Aircraft. 
• The aircraft is programmed for a fully autonomous flight, meaning that it flies under the control of automatic systems and needs no intervention from a human pilot.
• Abhyas has Radar cross-section (RCS), Visual and IR augmentation systems required for weapon practice.
• Its fuselage consists of five sections, namely the nose cone, equipment bay, fuel tank bay, air intake bay and tail cone.
• The vehicle can be used as a target for evaluation of various missile systems.

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