Unmanned combat aerial vehicle
CATS Warrior
is a part of the
HAL Combat Air Teaming System
program. Its work is believed to have started in early 2019 under a
Public Private Partnership
(PPP) between the state owned
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
(HAL) and an Indian private startup, Newspace R&D. HAL has done an initial investment of
?
400
crore
in CATS Warriors & in
Aero India
2021 a full-scale mock-up model was presented for the first time.
[3]
Development
[
edit
]
CATS Warrior is being developed as an
autonomous wingman drone
capable of taking off and landing on land and at sea from an
aircraft carrier
. It will team up with existing
Indian Air Force
(IAF) fighter platforms, including the
Tejas
,
AMCA
,
TEDBF
,
Su-30 MKI
and
Jaguar
which will act as its
mothership
.
[4]
The CATS Warrior is primarily envisioned for the IAF's use and a similar, smaller version will be designed for the
Indian Navy
. It would be controlled by the mothership and accomplish tasks such as scouting, absorbing enemy fire, attacking the targets if necessary with its internal and external pylons weapons or sacrifice itself by crashing into the target.
It will fly back for mission within the combat radius of 350 km and for long range mission with combat radius of 800 km it will sacrifice itself crashing into the target. As it is an
unmanned
asset, it can be directed towards a target and sacrificed in case it cannot be flown back to territory.
[5]
"
Warrior will serve as a 'sensor amplifier' for the LCA, flying out ahead of the manned aircraft and using its sensors to feed information back to LCA
" HAL test pilot Retd
Group Captain
H.V. Thakur.
[6]
HAL management approved a sum of ?390 Crore ($53.5 Million) for the development as of February 2021. As per the Director of HAL Engineering, Research & Development division Arup Chatterjee, the integration with CATS MAX mothership will take 1-2 years and first flights is scheduled for 2024-25.
[7]
Design
[
edit
]
It has a composite structure with an internal weapon bay & hybrid design whose front section looks like
Boeing Airpower Teaming System
wingman & from its mid fuselage to its tail like
Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie
. It has a single serpentine air intake on the top of its fuselage that leads to its two engines. It will be powered by modified
HAL PTAE-7
or
HAL HTFE-25
turbofan engine.
[5]
HTFE-25 turbofan engine
It can carry two new-generation short-range or beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles externally, and two
DRDO Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon
(SAAW) internally in its internal weapon bay.
[8]
SAAW in warrior's internal bay & NG-CCM.
[a]
It will be equipped with an electro-optic/infrared payload,
Active electronically scanned array
(AESA) radar, inertial navigational unit, and a jammer for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and combat operations.
[2]
Its exhaust will feature chevron nozzle design like
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II
to reduce the
Jet blast
noises & radar emissions.
CATS Warrior wingman model with chevron exhaust at Aero India 2021
Projected specifications
[
edit
]
General characteristics
Performance
- Maximum speed:
Mach 0.9
- Cruise speed:
790 km/h (490 mph, 430 kn)
- Range:
1,500 km (930 mi, 810 nmi)
- Combat range:
700 km (430 mi, 380 nmi)
Armament
- Hardpoints:
4: 2 internal & 2 external with a capacity of up to 600kg, with provisions to carry combinations of:
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
The transparent place in the picture is not it's sideway weapon bay, its only a mean to see its internal weapon configuration in HAL warrior model at Aero India. The weapons will be stored internally in center of warrior's body not on its side.
|
---|
Indigenous
| Manufacturer designations
| |
---|
Light aircraft
| |
---|
Trainers
| |
---|
Fighter aircraft
| |
---|
Helicopters
| |
---|
Transporters
| |
---|
Gliders
| |
---|
UAVs
| |
---|
|
---|
Jointly developed
| |
---|
Under license
| Fighter aircraft
| |
---|
Helicopters
| |
---|
Transporters
| |
---|
Trainers
| |
---|
|
---|
(*) are under development
|