Flying Wedge Defence, a city based defence and aerospace technology firm on Friday unveiled the FWD-200B unmanned aircraft.
The firm claimed that it is India’s first indigenous bomber unmanned aircraft.
“While the U.S. Predator costs a staggering ₹250 crores, our indigenous FWD-200B, built with state-of-the-art technology and manufactured in India, slashes the cost to a mere ₹25 crores. This not only demonstrates our commitment to self-reliance but also positions India as a leader in cost-effective defence solutions,” Suhas Tejaskanda, founder, Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace said.
The FWD-200B has a payload capacity of 100 kgs and is classified as a MALE Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (medium-altitude, long-endurance). The Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) consists of optical surveillance payloads and is integrated with missile-like weapons for precision air strikes.
With a max speed of 200 kts/370 kmph, it has an endurance capacity of 12-20 hours.
“The FWD-200B can carry a maximum takeoff weight of 498 Kgs in addition to this, it holds a ground control station (GCS) range of 200 kms,” the company said
Tejaskanda said that flight tests on the full-scale model of the FWD-200B would be carried out later this month and next month the company would be observing the entire flight dynamics and behaviour of the aircraft.
“By the next three months, we should be able to get it to the Centre for Military Airworthiness & Certification (CEMILAC) and get the certification done. Once the certification is done we will be ready to induct this into the forces. Our aim is to sell it to other countries like African and South East Asian countries as well which cannot $32 billion Predator UAVs but can buy $3 billion Indian products,” Tejaskanda said.
