NEW DELHI: An Indian AI warfare company, Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace (FWDA), has completed 100 cumulative hours of flight testing of its indigenous FWD Kaal Bhairava Lite, an indigenous, AI-powered autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for long-endurance intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), and tactical operations.Designed and manufactured entirely in India, with an indigenisation rate of 80%, the platform has undergone flight testing in demanding weather conditions, including 25-30 knot gusts over the Bay of Bengal, providing the development team with real-world flight data on aircraft behaviour and control in challenging wind conditions, a company statement said. It has also completed a demonstration in the challenging operating environment of J&K, supporting the platform’s development for multi-terrain defence operations, it said.Built with zero foreign dependency, the platform ensures complete data sovereignty and eliminates external kill-switch risks while being positioned at a fraction of the cost of comparable Predator-class UAV systems.Suhas Tejaskanda, founder and CEO of Bengaluru-based FWDA, said, “One hundred hours of flight testing gives us an extensively tested indigenous aircraft architecture. Kaal Bhairava has demonstrated its short-field capability, strong climb performance and operation in demanding wind conditions. With a 1,200-km-class design and 8-10 hours of endurance, we believe the platform has significant potential for both the Indian Navy requirement and international markets.”The development comes as the Indian Navy examines long-range ship- and shore-launched loitering munitions, with its current RFI seeking a system with a range exceeding 1,000 km and more than nine hours of endurance.According to FWDA, the Kaal Bhairava programme is continuing to generate interest from multiple parts of India and international markets. The programme has secured a $25 million export order from a South Asian nation and enabled the company’s first international manufacturing node in Portugal, marking a significant milestone in India’s global expansion strategy.
