According to a report by Rajat Pandit of TOI, the Tapas project, a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) remotely-piloted aircraft, failed to meet altitude requirements. The aircraft was expected to reach an altitude of 30,000 feet and demonstrate a flight time of 20 hours. However, it only has a flying endurance of around 18 hours at an altitude of 28,000 feet.

The Tapas project was originally scheduled to be completed by August 2016, but was delayed multiple times due to issues including the UAV's weight, an imported engine, and payload problems. The project's original budget of ₹1,786 crore was also revised downward.

The decision to defund the project was objective and based on logic for the following reasons: 

Performance shortfalls were substantial. The gaps were too wide and beyond redemption

The airframe configuration chosen for the drone severely limited DRDO’s ability to address the performance shortfalls

The lack of a suitable turboprop powerplant put the DRDO at a dead end

The Tapas-BH (Tactical Aerial Platform For Advanced Surveillance-Beyond Horizon) or Tapas-201 drone did complete around 200 flights, but could not meet the preliminary services qualitative requirements (PSQRs).