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Way back in 1988, the Indian government decided it would be important to indigenously develop unmanned aerial vehicles, which we now call drones. Six years later, the Defence Research and Development Organisation tested out the aircraft known as Nishant. Much was made at the time of a basic UAV that was home-built and would end up being an eye in the sky for the Indian Army. Eventually four of the machines were inducted into the Army, but only in 2011, more than two decades after the project began.

And now, the entire Nishant project has crash landed. Literally. All four of the UAVs that were inducted into the army have crashed, with the last two hitting dirt in the last fortnight alone. As a result, the army has told DRDO it will not require any more of the machines.

"The user has stated that there is no requirement of additional Nishant UAV systems, therefore the phase 2 of the project is closed and no more funds are going to come for this project," the Economic Times reported earlier this month.

The last of the UAVs crashed after hitting overhead wires near Pokhran on Thursday. Another had crashed near Jaisalmer earlier this month. DRDO and the Army have traded barbs over who is actually at fault, with the latter saying that the drones are technically outdated and the former insisting that the crashes are the result of the way the Army is piloting them.

Either ways, DRDO hopes of eight more aircraft including a planned wheeled version, Panchi, which shows up in the video above, have now been shelved, and it will be time to see how much money has been spent on yet another indigenous project that crashed into the ground.