The indigeniously-developed Tactical Aerial Platform for Advanced Surveillance(TAPAS) unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) is now ready for user evaluation trials.
TAPAS which has been developed and designed by Aeronautical development establishment, funded by the DRDO falls under the Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) category of UAVS.
From the get go Tapas had been designed to meet the requirements of the three branches of the Indian Military- Indian Navy, Army, and Air Force. Evaluation tests will be done by all three branches to ensure wether TAPAS meets the satisfactory point and requirements of the particular branch.
The Indian Navy is in urgent need of UAVS of both (MALE) Medium-altitude-long-endurance and (HALE)high-altitude-long-endurance. The Indian Navy will potentially be operating both TAPAS and MQ9-B Simultaneously. Both platforms have a lot of overlapping capabilities, but the MQ-9B has a lot of operational hours on its hand and has been in battle-grounds for many years, giving TAPAS a hard time as this is DRDO’s first drone program of (MALE) category.
The Indian Army has a spectrum of requirements that have been un-fulfilled as highlighted in Kargil War, TAPAS is a perfect fit for meeting those requirements ranging from ISR capabilities, night ops, remote strike capabilities.
With it’s Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR) and laser designator, TAPAS’s capabilities are boosted by a milestone. During operations, when a target is identified and deemed to be a threat, the target is then illuminated by the laser-designator for other-strike aircraft, or TAPAS will descend to a lower altitude and attack the target using its own, onboard air-to-surface missiles.
TAPAS will be manufactured In partnership by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and ADE. The final version of the drone will have combat range of 250 km. A total of 76 TAPAS drones will be inducted initially into the armed forces in which 60 will be for the Army, 12 for the Air Force and 4 for the Navy.
It is still to be determined how TAPAS will perform in the Production phase and acquisition phase with Armenia showing interest to procure the drone in July of 2022. TAPAS still has long way to go, but hopefully a bright one.
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