Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) built Hawk-i trainer aircraft today test fired a Smart Anti Airfield Weapon (SAAW) off the coast of Odisha. The SAAW standoff weapon is developed by Research Centre Imarat (RCI), a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). SAAW is the first smart weapon fired from an Indian Hawk Mk 132.
“The Company owned Hawk-i platform is being extensively used for certification of systems and weapons developed indigenously by DRDO and CSIR labs” said R Madhavan, CMD, HAL.
“The aircraft flown by HAL test pilots Wg Cdr (Retd) P Awasthi and Wg Cdr (Retd) M Patel executed the weapon release in a textbook manner and all mission objectives were met. The telemetry and tracking systems captured all the mission events confirming the success of the trials,” states the HAL release.
Arup Chatterjee, Director, Engineering and R&D, HAL said HAL is indigenously enhancing the training and combat capability of Hawk-i. HAL is in discussions with Indian Armed Forces for integration of various weapons on Hawk platform.
The Hawk-i is a HAL funded program to upgrade the British BAe Hawk trainer aircraft in Indian service and make it combat capable. Hawk-i features HAL developed Real Time Operating System (RTOS).
The SAAW is an aircraft launched, advanced, precision strike weapon of 125 Kg category used to attack and destroy enemy airfield assets such as radars, bunkers, taxi tracks, runways within a range of 100 kms. SAAW has already been test fired from a Sepecat Jaguar aircraft.