BANGALORE, Feb 7:
Indian Defence Aviation major Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd today said it would foray into production and servicing of Unmanned Aerial vehicle (UAV) and was already in talks with Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) for the production of Rustom-2 drone.
Talking to mediapersons here, HAL Chairman R K Tyagi said HAL would be investing Rs 500 crore for manufacture and technology development of UAVs. It would also like to be manufacturing and maintenance hub for UAVs.
He said it had already been in talks with the government in this regard.
Mr T Suvarna Raju Director for design and development said HAL was also in dialogue with premier technology education institutions such as Indian institute of Science and the IIT, Chennai for academic collaboration with them.
It has proposed to the Union Home Ministry that the Navratna company will prepare a blue-print vis-a-vis UAV requirements for para-military forces.
Mr Tyagi said HAL would design and develop a 20 kN aero-engine. ‘It will be a great emerging market to come because in a few years aero-engine market in India is expected to the tune of Rs 2,50,000 crore’.
Mr Raju said Bangalore-headquartered defence PSU has the expertise of manufacturing engines under licence agreements and knows the technology involved.
‘HAL is venturing into creating a mig-segment engine which will be used either on trainers what we have or regional jets (aircraft) we are looking at’, he said.
He said the preliminary design of this engine would be reviewed in September this year and the prototype is planned to be tested in three years.
The HAL is in discussion with the Ministry of Human Resources Development to create an aviation university based in Bangalore which will be ‘full-fledged in every way’, he added. (UNI)
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