July 06, 2013: With a slew of micro air vehicle development programmes under way at the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL), academic institutions and private industry, a new advanced research tunnel is being established in Bangalore to speed up testing and development work. The Indian Army and paramilitary forces have stated requirements for MAVs for operations. The MAV Aerodynamics Research Tunnel (MART) is being sponsored by the Aeronautical Development Research Board (ADRB) and DRDO, and will meet all special requirements of MAV studies.

Literature on the new facility accessed by SP's says, "Wind tunnel testing has an important role to play in the development of mission-capable MAVs with high endurance. MART at CSIR-NAL is being established to meet all the special requirements for MAV studies. Some of the features of this low speed, suction type closed test section low turbulence wind tunnel include open jet test section with a large Betz chamber and active gust generation mechanism." It goes on to say, "This wind tunnel is the first of its kind in India and is being made available to all the projects under NP-MICAV and other research organisations, academic institutions, industries to carry out research and development in MAVs."