The Indian Air Force is ready to amass six state-of-the-art airborne warning and control aircraft during a deal worth near Rs.11,000 crore with the cupboard Committee on Security giving a green light on Wednesday.
The aircraft themselves are likely to be hand-me-down A-321 jetliners from Air India which can then be structurally modified to hold a made-in-India radar developed by the Defence Research and Development Radar.
The DRDO radar are a modernised variant of the present active electronically steered array (AESA) radar installed on two Netra airborne warning aircraft already deployed by the IAF.
The Indian Air Force also operates 3 larger, A-50 EI aircraft procured from Russia which are fitted with the Israeli EL/W-2090 ‘Phalcon’ radar system.
An active electronically scanned array (AESA) may be a computer-controlled radar array during which radio beams may be electronically steered to point in numerous directions without moving the antenna. AESA radars are more accurate, more reliable and offer better detection capability when put next with legacy systems.
The radars which is able to be installed on the A-321 aircraft which is able to be transferred to the Indian Air Force will ensure 360 degree coverage of many kilometres of airspace round the aircraft, more comprehensive than the current capability of the IAF’s Netra jets.
Airborne warning aircraft came into sharp focus during the India-Pakistan aerial duel along the road of Control and International approach February 27, 2019. IAF fighters, deployed to intercept incoming Pakistan Air Force strike formations relied heavily on support from the IAF’s Netra and A-50 jets which tracked the movement of PAF fighters and vectored IAF defenders to try an intercept. it had been intelligence gathered from an IAF airborne warning and control aircraft that led the Indian Air Force to conclude that commanding officer Varthaman had intercepted and shot down a PAF F-16 before he was shot down himself.
The entire project is anticipated to require up to seven years to complete with the prototype of the primary A-321 aircraft expected in approximately four years.
