India on Tuesday successfully flight-tested Abhyas, a high-speed target drone for practice of weapon systems with realistic threat scenarios. For the uninitiated, Abhyas is a high-speed drone that can be targeted by missiles during weapon systems practice.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has achieved a milestone with the successful flight test of Abhyas - High-Speed Expandable Aerial Target from Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Balasore in Odisha.

"This can be used as a target for evaluation of various Missile systems. Congratulations to DRDO and other stakeholders for this achievement," Singh said.

During the trials, two demonstrator vehicles were successfully test flown. The vehicle can be used as target for evaluation of various missile systems.

Abhyas is designed and developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), DRDO. The air vehicle is launched using twin underslung booster.

"It is powered by a small gas turbine engine and has an Inertial Navigation System (INS) for navigation along with the Flight Control Computer for guidance and control. The vehicle is programmed for a fully autonomous flight. The check out of air vehicle is done using laptop based Ground Control Station (GCS)," the DRDO stated.

It also stated that during the test campaign, the user requirement of five-km flying altitude, vehicle speed of 0.5 mach, endurance of 30 minutes and 2g turn capability of the test vehicle were successfully achieved.

It has been developed after eight years of research and trials.

(IANS)