NEW DELHI: Kawa UAV Pvt. Ltd., a defence start-up based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, on Sunday announced that it successfully conducted a maiden flight test of the Divyastra Mk3, a next-generation, jet-powered loitering munition developed indigenously in India.The company described the Divyastra Mk3 as India’s first indigenous jet-powered loitering munition to take flight. The test was conducted on August 11.“The Sky Has Changed. INTRODUCING DIVYAASTRA Mk3….Powered by an indigenous jet engine developed by DG Propulsion, Divyastra Mk3 completed its maiden flight on 11 August 2026. From programme inception to maiden flight in one calendar year. No imported jet engine. No foreign critical subsystem. Built in India. Flown in India. DIVYAASTRA Mk3, Faster. Smarter. Uncompromising. This is more than a flight. This is Atmanirbhar Bharat in action,” the company said.Following the test, Kawa UAV’s co-founders described the successful flight as a major milestone in indigenous defence manufacturing, asserting that it demonstrated India’s ability to conceive, engineer and fly a jet-powered precision-strike system entirely within the country.“This is not merely a test flight, it is a declaration of intent. India has demonstrated, at scale and at speed, that it can conceive, engineer, and fly a jet-powered precision strike system entirely from within its own borders. Divyastra Mk3 is Atmanirbhar Bharat in action,” ANI quoted the co-founders as saying.Earlier, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) completed the final deliverable configuration development trials of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Launched Precision Guided Missile (ULPGM)-V3 in air-to-ground and air-to-air modes at a DRDO test range near Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh.The trials were conducted using an integrated Ground Control System (GCS) to command and control the ULPGM weapon system. The GCS incorporates advanced technologies to automate readiness and launch operations.DRDO has partnered with two production agencies — Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad, and Adani Defence Systems & Technologies Limited, Hyderabad — for the development and production of the missiles. The system has been integrated with UAVs developed by Bengaluru-based Newspace Research and Technologies for the current trials.