India’s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) unveiled its Unmanned Wingman concept at the Aero India 2019 exhibition held in Bangalore from 20–24 February.
The Unmanned Wingman concept is currently envisioned to be a 6 m-class, low-observable, multipurpose unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) with an endurance of up to 80 minutes and a range of 800 km, although its size can be scaled up for greater endurance or payload capacity should there be a customer requirement.
An impression of HAL’s proposed Unmanned Wingman concept.Photo by: IHS Markit/Rahul Udoshi
The development is an effort led by HAL with industry partners, including a local start-up called NewSpace Research and Technologies (NRT), to develop low-cost platforms that can provide on-call support to forward-deployed combat aircraft operating in contested airspace.