PTI BANGALORE CAPABLE of undertaking various military missions and intelligence gathering tasks, the indigenously developed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Rustom-1 on Tuesday demonstrated its ability to fly at an altitude of 11,500 feet with a heavier take-off weight.

“Indigenously designed and developed Rustom-1 made a successful flight on Tuesday morning at Kolar with attainment of about 11,500 feet above ground level and speed of above 140 kmph during 2 hours and 10 minutes of cruise,” DRDO officials said in Bangalore.

It was the 14 successful test flight of the UAV. Developed by DRDO’s Bangalore-based lab Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Rustom had its maiden flight in November 2009.

PS Krishnan, Director ADE, after witnessing the flight, said the mission was successful and all the parameters were achieved by the UAV, which weighed around 690 kgs. Its total performance was satisfactory, he said.

Underlining the highlights of the flight, he said the UAV used a ‘lean mixture control system’ in the engine for flying at high altitudes and its take-off weight was also the heaviest so far.

During the flight, Rustom also achieved the maximum altitude of 3.5 kms and flew upto its extended range of about 50 kms, which was tried out for the first time.

“The waypoint track was perfect and so were take-off, landing and other parameters of the aircraft,” the officials said. Rustom-1 has the potential to conduct military missions like reconnaissance and surveillance, target acquisition, target designation, communications, battle damage assessment and gathering signal intelligence.

Once fully developed, it will be able to attain the maximum altitude of 22,000 feet with an endurance of 12-15 hours and operate within a range of 250 kms, the officials said.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday strongly protested the way Karnataka Police arrested a terrorist suspect from Darbhanga district in Bihar without informing the state police, and said he would raise the issue with the central government.

“It is not proper to arrest a suspect without informing local police. The law of the land should be followed. We will raise this issue before the concerned department of the central government,” Kumar told newspersons in Patna.

Kumar termed the Karnataka Police action as violation of establish rule.

“I have sought a report from Bihar police chief on it, we will send the report to the union home ministry,” Kumar said.

Bihar police chief Abhyanand has also lodged a strong protest with his Karnataka counterpart, he said.

Bangalore Crime Branch officials arrested Kafil Akhtar, a suspected member of banned outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), in connection with the Chinnaswami Stadium blast case of 2010, from a village in Darbhanga, about 200 km from Patna.

Darbhanga Superintendent of Police (SP) Garima Malik said that local police were not informed by Karnataka police about the arrest.

The Darbhanga police came to know about the arrest from Akhtar’s family members, Malik said.