HAL to start making 6-airframes of TAPAS BH-201| Project to complete by 2023
TAPAS BH-201
TAPAS BH-201 or Tactical Advanced Platform for Aerial Surveillance Beyond Horizon-201 is a Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) drone. It will be India’s first MALE UAV which will be used in day and night aerial surveillance missions by the Indian Army, Air Force and Navy.
Important Milestones in TAPAS BH-201 program
In last few months the program has gained momentum and has achieved two important milestones. On 7th November 2021, we have seen a video of test flight of Rustom-2 or TAPAS BH 201. This was an important development for the Tapas program as it has proven the two critical technologies which includes ATOL or Autonomous Take Off and Landing and the integration of the UAV’s flight system with indigenous GAGAN Satellite. During the flight TAPAS took off on GPS-SBAS based auto mode successfully. The GPS-aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) was utilised for augmenting the accuracy of GPS. During the test Tapas demonstrated 8hrs of endurance, 250km range and 15000ft flight altitude using GAGAN. Rustom-1 has also demonstrated similar capability with 10hrs of endurance & 220km range.
On March 2022, it was reported that Rustom-II has achieved flight altitude of 27,500ft and endurance of 18hrs in a recent trial conducted in same month which is close the to the target set for the UAV. As per the S. Rajagopal, project director of Tapas, the Tapas is slightly short of the armed forces’ requirements. But a majority of requirements have been met.” Rustom till date has completed more than 110 flights so far with various mission profiles.
TAPAS BH-201 capabilities
It has a range of 250 km and is capable of day and night missions. It can carry payloads up to 350 kg. It is designed to perform intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance missions for the Indian Armed Forces. Its mission requirements are to provide continuous wide area coverage and be able to identify small targets.
Latest update on TAPAS BH-201 program
Recently, R Madhavan, CMD, HAL has said The Indian Express , said, “We are now going to make some more airframes for TAPAS. Six airframes will be made for the user evaluation trials. This is a joint project by HAL and DRDO. TAPAS has to reach 30,000 feet which it has almost reached and has proven the endurance (hours spent in the sky) of more than 16 hours. Once the airframes are put to user trials, the production will start.”
As per the earlier report by ADA, The flight control systems, avionics and data-linked systems for the first five Tapas drones are ready. As soon as the airframe is ready, these systems can be integrated quickly. The engines have already been ordered. HAL team will be trained on the integration of the first two UAVs and for the HAL will do the integration and ADE will only monitor at the production stage. The Tapas will soon go for The Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC) for its airworthiness by checking its load factors, safety and airframe design. The project is slated to complete by 2023 and enter into production.
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