Asteria Aerospace demonstrated its indigenous prowess in micro category surveillance drone, the A200-XTTM, during PANEX-21 military exercise of BIMSTEC Nations – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.
The A200-XT is designed and developed in India, which weighs less than 2 kg and is built with day and night observation capabilities. This drone can fly more than 40 minutes, while other drones in this category can typically have an endurance of less than 30 minutes.
“Globally there is a surge in demand for conducting 24/7 surveillance of borders, critical infrastructure, as well as maintain aerial surveillance for law and order to enable continuous monitoring as well as a rapid response to threats. This is driving the growth of the market for sophisticated, best in class systems at affordable prices. Asteria Aerospace foresees that its state-of-the-art micro drone technology and surge in defence & homeland security spending in Asia, especially in BIMSTEC nations, will create new export opportunities”, says Mr. Nihar Vartak, Co-founder & Director, Asteria Aerospace.
“The demonstration by Asteria Aerospace is one of the first examples in India using – a single pilot, inexpensive, autonomous system to perform comprehensive intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, which were once achieved only by large, expensive systems. The A200-XTTM empowers Military, National Border Guard Agencies, Police or Law Enforcement Agencies, Chief Security officials of critical infrastructure for better decision making”, he further added.
The A200-XT features a swappable payload capability, unique in this category, with the ability to carry a high 10x optical zoom video camera for daytime operations and change to a thermal camera for night-time surveillance and security applications. The A200-XTTM also offers an omni-directional obstacle detection and avoidance capability ensuring complete operational safety.
The muti-rotor micro drone has a line-of-sight range of 5 km and can withstand wind speeds up to 43 km/h. The maximum launch altitude of the drone is 4,500m above mean sea level and the maximum operating altitude is 500m above the ground level. After attaining the height of 150 metres AGL, it become inaudible and makes it a discreet drone, which make it perfect for intelligence gathering missions.
