UPPSC 2024 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 110 of 150

Correct — D, Both 1 and 2. The FWD-200B is an unmanned combat aerial vehicle unveiled on 3 May 2024 by Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace Technologies, a Bengaluru firm, and it was presented — and reported — as India's first indigenously developed bomber UAV, that is, the first Indian-designed drone built to carry and release precision air-to-ground munitions rather than only to watch. Statement 1 therefore stands. Statement 2 also stands: its payload capacity is 100 kg, made up of optical surveillance payloads together with the munitions it can deliver. Both statements being accurate, the key marks (d). Anchor this to the exam date of 22 December 2024 — at that point the aircraft had been unveiled and was in flight testing, with a maiden flight reported later in 2024, so treat the entry as a development-stage milestone rather than as an inducted service platform.

• (a)Only 2 — Accepts the payload figure but rejects the 'first indigenous bomber UAV' description, which is in fact how the aircraft was announced and reported. It is a genuine claim about the design category — an Indian-developed UAV meant to deliver air-to-ground munitions and return — not a piece of marketing that the question has planted as a falsifier.
• (b)Neither 1 nor 2 — Rejects both statements when both are correct. Nothing in the question is falsified: the descriptor and the payload figure are exactly as recorded, so this option would only be chosen by a candidate who has not encountered the aircraft at all and is defaulting to the safest-looking code.
• (c)Only 1 — Accepts the description but doubts the number, and the number is the correct one — the FWD-200B's stated payload capacity is 100 kg. This is the standard reflex of assuming that whichever statement carries a figure must be the falsified one; here the examiner did not falsify anything, which is itself the trap.

An unmanned aerial vehicle carries no pilot on board; when it is also armed and used to strike, it is called an unmanned combat aerial vehicle. UAVs are classified by endurance and altitude — the MALE class, medium-altitude long-endurance, is the workhorse category for surveillance and armed missions. India has long imported that class or relied on Israeli platforms, and its indigenous effort has centred on DRDO's TAPAS-BH programme, a MALE UAV built for surveillance. The FWD-200B matters as a category first and as a structural first: an armed, bomb-carrying UAV designed and built in India, and built by a private start-up rather than by a defence public sector undertaking or a DRDO laboratory.

Two-statement items on newly announced defence platforms are decided by whether you can attach a name to its category and its headline number. Here the examiner did the unusual thing of falsifying neither, which catches candidates trained to hunt for a planted error and who therefore drop the statement carrying the figure. Guard against that by treating 'both correct' as a live option rather than a suspicious one. On the substance, be precise about what 'bomber UAV' means, because the neighbouring category is easily confused with it: a loitering munition — the so-called kamikaze drone — flies into its target and is destroyed with it, whereas a bomber UAV releases its munition and returns to be used again. That distinction is what makes a 'first' claim meaningful for an aircraft of this kind.

• FWD-200B — unveiled 3 May 2024 by Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace Technologies, Bengaluru; presented as India's first indigenous bomber UAV, i.e. an Indian-developed unmanned combat aerial vehicle designed to deliver precision air-to-ground munitions.
• Its payload capacity is 100 kg, comprising optical surveillance payloads together with the air-to-ground munitions it can carry.
• It sits in the MALE class — medium-altitude long-endurance — and was positioned as a low-cost indigenous alternative to imported combat drones of the same category.
• It comes from a private Indian start-up rather than from DRDO or a defence PSU; DRDO's own indigenous MALE UAV effort is the TAPAS-BH programme, developed for surveillance.
• A bomber UAV is not the same as a loitering munition: the first releases its weapon and returns, the second is itself the weapon and is expended on the target.

• Assuming that a statement containing a number is the planted falsehood. Some 'both correct' items exist precisely to punish that reflex.
• Confusing an armed bomber UAV with a loitering munition or with an unarmed surveillance UAV; the 'first' claim only makes sense within one category.
• Reading an unveiling as an induction. As of the December 2024 exam the FWD-200B had been unveiled and was in flight testing, not in operational service — the question asks about the aircraft's description and payload, not its service status.

UPPSC asks new defence platforms as two-statement items on category plus one headline specification; UPSC prefers 'which one of the following is the best description of X' or a conceptual item on what a whole class of platforms can and cannot do. Learn each new platform as name, category, maker and one number.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the classification of unmanned aerial vehicles, the abbreviation 'MALE' stands for:

  • (a)Multi-Axis Loitering Explosive
  • (b)Medium Altitude Long Endurance
  • (c)Manned-Assisted Launch Equipment
  • (d)Modular Aerial Logistics Element

  Answer(b) Medium Altitude Long Endurance — the UAV class that flies for very long durations at medium altitude and is used for sustained surveillance and armed missions; HALE denotes the high-altitude long-endurance class above it.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following best describes a 'loitering munition'?

  • (a)A UAV that releases bombs and returns to base
  • (b)A drone that circles over an area and then strikes by flying into the target, destroying itself
  • (c)A ground-launched artillery shell with terminal guidance
  • (d)A radar decoy launched from a fighter aircraft

  Answer(b) A drone that circles over an area and then strikes by flying into the target, destroying itself — often called a kamikaze or suicide drone. That makes it a different category from a bomber UAV such as the FWD-200B, which delivers a munition and returns.