The Indian Army has accepted the Nishant multi-mission UAV following a series of confirmatory endurance trials.

At Aero India 2011 in Bangalore from 9-13 February the Defence Research and Development Organisation's (DRDO) Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) displayed a Nishant UAV.

Successful flight trials of the Nishant's systems were conducted by the Indian Army at Chandan Range Pokharan in western India. ADE is ready to deliver one complete system composed of four Nishant UAVs.

Orders for 11 more systems for the army are expected in due course. The Nishant's primary roles are battlefield reconnaissance, border surveillance, target tracking/localisation and artillery fire correction, tasks it conducts by day or night thanks to its US-manufactured daylight TV camera and FLIR. The electro-optical system can detect trucks at a maximum range of 5km, and people at 2.5km.

One advantage of the Nishant is its ability to launch and land without a prepared runway. It is launched by a mobile hydropneumatic launcher (MHPL), and is recovered via parachutes and landing bags.

A single Nishant system is transported in a family of nine Tatra 8x8 trucks that provide a high degree of mobility. The Nishant can thus be quickly deployed to where it is needed - along the Chinese or Pakistani border, for example. Likewise, the UAV could be used in the aftermath of natural disasters such as earthquakes.

Directed from a truck-mounted ground control station (GCS), or programmed to fly autonomously, the Nishant has an endurance of 4.5 hours and payload link range of 100km. Manufactured from composite materials, the 4.63m-long Nishant fuselage offers a low radar signature. A locally developed 55hp Wankel rotary engine powers it to a cruising speed of 150km/h up to a ceiling of 3,600m, an altitude that must be considered inadequate for much of India's mountainous regions.