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AURA is an autonomous unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV), being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation for the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy. The design work on the UCAV is to be carried out by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA). Details of the project are classified.

The UCAV will be capable of releasing missiles, bombs and precision-guided munitions. The programme is in its project definition stage. The design is in line with what former DRDO chief controller for Aeronautics said in 2007, that India's combat drone would be a stealthy flying-wing concept aircraft with internal weapons bay and a turbofan engine.The UCAV's design is similar to Northrop Grumman's B-2 Spirit.

Description

The ADA describes the AURA as a "self-defending high-speed reconnaissance UAV with weapon firing capability". The first images released as part of a presentation shows the UAV as having a stealth design. The AURA will cruise at medium altitude and will be capable of carrying two or more guided strike weapons with on-board sensors for targeting and weapon guidance. The flight control system and data link packages of Aura (unmanned combat aerial vehicle) will be designed and developed jointly by ADA and Defence Electronic Application Laboratory.

DRDO's Chief Controller, R&D (aeronautics), Dr Prahlada said, "Capable of flying at altitudes of 30,001 feet and weighing less than 15 tonnes, the UCAVs will have rail-launching for the missiles, bombs and PGMs (precision-guided munitions) they will carry." A non-afterburning variant of Kaveri was said to be used in the UCAV. In 2015 Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar informed Rajya Sabha that AURA will be powered by a Kaveri derivative engine ("dry" engine).

On 13 November 2015,it was reported that Indian government is set to allocate Rs 3000 crore for development of advance version of Kaveri Engine named Ghatak to power India's Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle(UCAV) AURA.

See also

• Unmanned combat aerial vehicle

Related development

• DRDO Rustom

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

• Boeing X-45
• Northrop Grumman X-47
• Lockheed Martin Polecat
• Dassault nEUROn
• BAE Taranis
• Boeing Phantom Ray
• Mikoyan Skat

References

1. Aroor, Shiv. "Stealth bomber no longer a secret." India Today, 30 June 2012.
2. "AURA : India's Stealth Predator Drone". Defence News. 16 February 2015.
3. "India to develop unmanned combat aerial vehicle". Ibnlive.in.com. Retrieved 2012-01-28.
4. New Imagery Details Indian Aura UCAV July 16, 2012
5. "AURA : India's Stealth Predator Drone". Defence News. 16 February 2015.
6. "India developing unmanned combat aerial vehicle". Indiatoday.intoday.in. 2010-06-10. Retrieved 2012-01-28.
7. India joins bat-wing large UAV club (2010-06-18). "India joins bat-wing large UAV club". Flightglobal.com. Retrieved 2012-01-28.
8. "We never had a single failure in 1,500 flights of Tejas: ADE - The Economic Times". Economictimes.indiatimes.com. 2011-01-17. Retrieved 2012-01-28.
9. "AURA , The Future of Indian Airforce". Defence Radar. 24 April 2014.
10. "DRDO CHIEF INTERVIEW P2: Confident About UCAV, Kaveri On Board". Live Fist Defence. 29 June 2013.
11. http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/indigenous-kaveri-engine-to-power-unmanned-combat-aircraft-115073001331_1.html
12. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/government-set-to-clear-rs-3000-crore-plan-to-develop-engine-for-indias-first-ucav/articleshow/49775096.cms

External links

• Stealth UCAV AURA

• Proposed aircraft of India
• Unmanned aerial vehicles of India
• DRDO aircraft
• Unmanned military aircraft