DRDO Ghatak is an autonomous stealth Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV). The Ghatak drone is being developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment ADE of DRDO located in Bangalore. Earlier it was known as Autonomous Unmanned Research Aircraft (AURA).
The DRDO Ghatak will be having an internal weapons bay to carry a variety of Missiles, bombs, and munitions.
The design of Ghatak UCAV will be based on flying wing concept and it will be powered by a turbofan engine.
Ghatak UCAV will be integrated with Onboard Computers, Secured data links, friend and foe identification systems, and fire control systems. The Maximum height it can fly is 3000 ft.
The first flight of a scaled down testbed was carried out in July 2022 and full scale prototype will be developed by 2025.
The Stealth Wing Flying Test Bed (SWiFT) is the technology demonstrator of DRDO Ghatak UCAV. In June 2021, the taxi trials were carried out and in July 2022, the take-off and landing capabilities of SWiFT were demonstrated at the Aeronautical Test Range of ADE at Challakere in Karnataka.
The Indian Navy has also shown interest in procuring deck-based UCAVs for Aircraft Carriers and Landing Platform Docks.