Indigenous bomber unmanned aircraft developed by Bengaluru firm unveiled

Flying Wedge Defence, a city based defence and aerospace technology firm on Friday unveiled the FWD-200B unmanned aircraft.

Flying Wedge Defence, a city based defence and aerospace technology firm on Friday unveiled the FWD-200B unmanned aircraft.

The firm claimed that it is India’s first indigenous bomber unmanned aircraft.

“While the U.S. Predator costs a staggering ₹250 crores, our indigenous FWD-200B, built with state-of-the-art technology and manufactured in India, slashes the cost to a mere ₹25 crores. This not only demonstrates our commitment to self-reliance but also positions India as a leader in cost-effective defence solutions,” Suhas Tejaskanda, founder, Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace said.

The FWD-200B has a payload capacity of 100 kgs and is classified as a MALE Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (medium-altitude, long-endurance). The Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) consists of optical surveillance payloads and is integrated with missile-like weapons for precision air strikes.

With a max speed of 200 kts/370 kmph, it has an endurance capacity of 12-20 hours.

“The FWD-200B can carry a maximum takeoff weight of 498 Kgs in addition to this, it holds a ground control station (GCS) range of 200 kms,” the company said

Tejaskanda said that flight tests on the full-scale model of the FWD-200B would be carried out later this month and next month the company would be observing the entire flight dynamics and behaviour of the aircraft.