The Nishant UAV is primarily tasked with intelligence gathering over enemy territory and also for reconnaissance, training, surveillance, target designation, artillery fire correction, damage assessment, ELINT and SIGINT.

[3] To meet the Army's operational requirement of a RPV (remotely piloted vehicle), it was decided in September 1988 that DRDO would undertake the indigenous development of the UAV.

In July 1999, for the first time the Indian army deployed its new Nishant UAV system in the fight against guerrilla forces backed by Pakistan in Kashmir Valley.

[5][6] Nishant Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) developed by DRDO for Indian Army was successfully flight tested near Kolar on 20 June 2008.

An abandoned World War II runway at a village near Kolar played host to the first ever flight of this rotary engine-powered UAV.

The provisional flight clearance for the first indigenous prototype engine was given by the certifying agency, the Regional Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification.

Confirming the news, a DRDO official said, "The user trials were going on and during the flight there were some technical snags owing to which the craft was landed using parachutes."

UAV is capable of operating from semi-prepared runway, thereby reducing the turnaround time between missions, which is major advantage over the current catapult launched Nishant.

[citation needed] The 380 kg (840 lb) Nishant UAV requires rail-launching from a hydro-pneumatic launcher and is able to be recovered by a parachute system.

The Mobile Hydro-Pneumatic Launcher (MHPL) system mounted on a Tatra truck weighs 14,000 kg (31,000 lb) and boasts of a life cycle of 1000 launches before requiring overhaul.

Nishant is one of the few UAVs in the world in its weight-class capable of being catapult-launched and recovered by using parachute, thus eliminating the need for a runway as in case of conventional take-off and landing with wheels.