NEW DELHI: The Drishti 10 Starliner drone, manufactured at Adani Defence and Aerospace facility Hyderabad, on Tuesday crashed off the Porbandar coast in Gujarat during its pre-acceptance trials. It would have been inducted upon completing trials.
Sources confirmed the drone, also known as Hermes 900, that crashed was operated by the supplier while it crashed into the sea.
“It has been recovered,” a source said.
While each system costs more than Rs 120 crore, “there won’t be any financial implications for the Indian Navy as the system was not yet inducted,” added the source.
These drones are being assembled under licence from Israel and are based on Hermes 900 Starliner manufactured in Israel by its firm Elbit Systems. The medium-altitude long-endurance drone is already in service with the Navy which inducted one last year. The Navy and the Army had ordered two such drones each.