Rustom-2, which crashed in Karnataka recently, was a/an
- (a)fighter aircraft
- (b)helicopter
- (c)transport aircraft
- (d)unmanned aerial vehicle
Correct — D, unmanned aerial vehicle. Rustom-2, later renamed TAPAS-BH-201, is a twin-engine medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle built by the Aeronautical Development Establishment of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, developed from the earlier Rustom-H. It is a surveillance platform, not a strike aircraft — DRDO has stated plainly that it is a UAV and not an unmanned combat aerial vehicle. The crash the paper refers to happened on 17 September 2019 near Jodichikkenahalli in Chitradurga district of Karnataka, during a trial from the Aeronautical Test Range at Challakere; nobody was hurt, which is one of the practical arguments for unmanned testing in the first place. The programme recovered from it: satellite communication was demonstrated in 2020, an altitude of 28,000 feet with eighteen hours of endurance by March 2022, and the two-hundredth flight by June 2023.
- (a)fighter aircraft — India's fighter development programme runs under a different name entirely — the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, and the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft after it. A fighter crash with no casualties would also be an odd thing to report without mentioning the pilot.
- (b)helicopter — DRDO's Rustom line has never included a rotorcraft. India's indigenous helicopter programmes — the Dhruv, Rudra, Light Combat Helicopter and Light Utility Helicopter — belong to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, not to this project.
- (c)transport aircraft — The indigenous transport effort is the Saras light transport aircraft and, in partnership, the C-295 programme. A transport aircraft is also not the sort of platform tested from a remote DRDO range in Chitradurga.
Unmanned aerial vehicles are classified by how high and how long they fly. A medium-altitude long-endurance platform such as TAPAS is meant to loiter for many hours at moderate altitude carrying sensors — electro-optical, infrared and radar — for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. That is a different job from a small tactical drone and different again from an armed unmanned combat aircraft.
The item can be solved without knowing the Rustom programme at all, by reading what the stem does not say. A crash of a manned aircraft is reported through its crew; this one is reported through its location. The Rustom naming is worth fixing because it recurs — Rustom-1, Rustom-H and Rustom-2, with the last renamed TAPAS-BH-201, all from the Aeronautical Development Establishment, and all tested at the Aeronautical Test Range at Challakere in Chitradurga district. The state of the art has moved on since the exam, with armed and high-altitude platforms now in Indian service, but TAPAS itself remains a surveillance design.
- Rustom-2, renamed TAPAS-BH-201, is a twin-engine medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle developed by DRDO's Aeronautical Development Establishment.
- DRDO has stated that it is a UAV and not an unmanned combat aerial vehicle — a surveillance rather than a strike platform.
- It crashed on 17 September 2019 near Jodichikkenahalli in Chitradurga district, Karnataka, during a trial from the Aeronautical Test Range at Challakere; there were no casualties.
- By March 2022 it had reached 28,000 feet with eighteen hours of endurance, and it completed its two-hundredth flight by June 2023.
- It is derived from the earlier Rustom-H design.
- Assuming any DRDO aerial project is a missile or a fighter; the Rustom line is unmanned and unarmed.
- Treating TAPAS as a strike platform because of its endurance; DRDO has described it as a surveillance vehicle.
- Confusing the Aeronautical Development Establishment with the Aeronautical Development Agency, which runs the Tejas programme.
As a name-the-platform question after a news event, or as a statements item on DRDO's unmanned aerial vehicle programmes.
With reference to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), consider the following statements : I. All types of UAVs can do vertical landing. II. All types of UAVs can do automated hovering. III. All types of UAVs can use battery only as a source of power supply. How many of the statements given above are correct?
- (a) Only one
- (b) Only two
- (c) All the three
- (d) None
Answer(d) None
The same technology tested on its variety rather than on a single platform. A fixed-wing design such as TAPAS neither lands vertically nor hovers, and runs on engines rather than batteries, which is precisely why all three sweeping statements fail.
Consider the following statements: The Government is promoting the 'Kisan Drone' for 1. Spraying weedicides. 2. Digitisation of land records. 3. Crop assessment. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2
- (b) 2 and 3
- (c) 1 only
- (d) 3 only
Answer(b) 2 and 3
The civil end of the same technology, two years later — the same airframe class turned to land records and crop assessment rather than to border surveillance.
- practice — not a real PYQ
TAPAS-BH-201, formerly known as Rustom-2, is developed by which one of the following organisations?
- (a)Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
- (b)Indian Space Research Organisation
- (c)Defence Research and Development Organisation
- (d)Bharat Electronics Limited
Answer(c) Defence Research and Development Organisation — specifically its Aeronautical Development Establishment at Bengaluru.
- practice — not a real PYQ
A medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle is designed primarily for
- (a)supersonic interception of enemy aircraft
- (b)long-duration surveillance and reconnaissance at moderate altitude
- (c)heavy cargo transport between airfields
- (d)launching satellites into low earth orbit
Answer(b) long-duration surveillance and reconnaissance at moderate altitude — the class TAPAS belongs to, carrying electro-optical, infrared and radar sensors.