[Livemint] Bangalore: State-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) have jointly won a bid to design and build Rustom, an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, for India’s defence research agency.HAL and BEL edged out private firms in the race for the project—the first Indian military aircraft programme to invite the private sector to design and build a plane. Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T), Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) and Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Co. Ltd were the other contenders. Rustom would be a medium-altitude, long-endurance aircraft, to be designed to fly at least 250km at a stretch.

