In an effort to make its future unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) more stealthy, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is looking for a development partner for a retractable landing gear that could be fitted on the Rustom-H and stealth USAV.

According to DRDO, the main function of the landing gear is safe take-off and landing of UAV under various environmental and operational scenarios with the support of external pilot. A tricycle type retractable landing gear system with a steerable nose wheel consists of major subsystems viz., hydrogas shock absorber strut, hydraulic actuation system with sensors, wheel and brake and nose wheel steering system and mechanical linkages. Interested development partners need to have expertise and wide experience in the area of high precision manufacturing of systems and components for aerospace application and operate full fledged manufacturing facilities from medium precision to high precision to cater for manufacture of landing gear systems and components. In addition to this, the firm must have experience to carry out assembly and limited testing.