Photos and videos of a demonstrator of an Indian unobtrusive SWiFT drone performing high-speed runs appeared on the network. As reported by The Drive, it is a smaller version of the Ghatak strike drone.
Only a few countries in the world have attack drones in service, although several dozen states are developing them. India has been trying to create such a device with varying success since the beginning of the noughties. The first Indian attack drone - Rustom-II - first took off in 2016, and a year later went into mass production. But the military has not yet adopted it, although they planned to do so last year.
The program to create an unobtrusive Ghatak drone became known in 2010. It is suitable for reconnaissance missions, but is primarily being developed like an unmanned bomber.
SWiFT is a Ghatak demonstrator, about eight times smaller in size. It is made according to the flying wing scheme and weighs 1050 kilograms. SWiFT is four meters long and has a wingspan of five meters. The device is equipped with a turbojet engine from the Russian company Saturn and can fly at distances up to 200 kilometers.
At the end of October, photos and videos with SWiFT speed runs appeared on the web. It looks the same as its early models and concept images: a flying wing with an air intake over the front of the fuselage and large landing gear. The exhaust of the SWiFT engine is barely noticeable.
Russia is also developing low-profile combat drones. For example, for the projects "Hunter-B" and "Stingray", which we wrote about earlier.
Vasilisa Chernyavtseva
