India's Defence Minister, A K Antony, has informed the Lok Sabha that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is taking up the development Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) against confirmed Qualitative Requirements (QRs) to meet tri-services requirements. The medium altitude, long endurance, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is being developed indigenously by the DRDO.

Relying to a question in the Lok Sabha, Antony informed that the UAV has been named as RUSTOM-H. “Indian Industry would be the development-cum-production partner for this program. The project is proposed to be completed in 78 months after formal sanction,” he said. Replying to another question, Antony said the proposal on the Kaveri-Snecma engine joint venture for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas is under government’s consideration. “Request for Proposal (RFP) for procuring 99 engines have been sent to two short-listed engine manufacturers, namely GE F414 from General Electric Aviation, USA, and EJ200 from Eurojet Germany,” Antony informed the members. He said the engine manufacturers have responded to the RFP.