EXCLUSIVE: Another Peep Into India's Secret Stealth UCAV Project

Pity we don't have a closer look at what's on that screen, but that slide confirms India's secretive UCAV programme is progressing through its feasibility study phase. The photograph here is from March 21, where Dr. Biju Uthup, director of the programme (IUSAV or Indian Unmanned Strike Air Vehicle) is seen making a presentation at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur as part of the institute's series of talks where academic researchers get a chance to figure how they can contribute to national military or industrial projects.

That picture adds a layer of tantalising (but altered) detail to the images we have of the concept studies on the classified programme so far. The picture appears to be a cutaway, though a more detailed, and shape-altered one compared to these I posted two years ago that first showed how the IUSAV team at the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) was envisioning the craft.

IIT-Kanpur, incidentally, has already begun working on technologies for the IUSAV. More concept images of the IUSAV through the last four years are here, here and here. Last year, DRDO chief Dr Avinash Chander spoke out formally for the first time on the IUSAV in an interview to me.

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