India may procure two more AWACS

[ROCKETRAJA]

Published December 17, 2012 | By admin
SOURCE: IANS

Defence Minister A.K. Antony stated this in the Lok Sabha Monday in response to a question from a member who wanted to know if the government had decided to beef up air defence.

Antony said the long-term integrated perspective plan of his ministry envisaged deployment of a mix of large AWACS aircraft and small Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) system aircraft.

“While three AWACS already stand operationalized in the Indian Air Force, there is a proposal for procurement of two additional AWACS,” he said.



Simultaneously, he added, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was engaged in indigenous development of three AWE&C systems.

The minister said the development of AWACS (India) “is envisaged to be completed in about 84 months from the date of formal sanction”.

 

[Abingdonboy]

Referring to the A-50EI PHALCON AWACS. This is a must IMO, these are the most advanced AWACS systems on the planet and there is a need for more than just 3 and even 5 but it seems the GoI/MoD is much more interested in gettin a similarly capable AWACS indigenously in the form of the AWACS (India) project that will build on the DRDO/CABs AWACS currently being deoped on the EMB-145 platform. The AWACS (India) project envisages a wide-bodied a/c with a radardome like on the A-50EI PHALCON or E-3. I would have preceded if these two follow-one were based on a airplane other than the A-50 but oh well.



And wrt the AWACS (India) the minister said 84 months (7 years) to cometd from sanction- has this sanction been given yet?

@sancho @arp2041 @anyone ??

 

[hitenray09]

And wrt the AWACS (India) the minister said 84 months (7 years) to cometd from sanction- has this sanction been given yet?

@sancho @arp2041 @anyone ??

Its still on cards i.e., deciding phase, RFP are to be issued..........

 

[Sergi]

Its still on cards i.e., deciding phase, RFP are to be issued..........

He mean AWACS India

Referring to the A-50EI PHALCON AWACS. This is a must IMO, these are the most advanced AWACS systems on the planet and there is a need for more than just 3 and even 5 but it seems the GoI/MoD is much more interested in gettin a similarly capable AWACS indigenously in the form of the AWACS (India) project that will build on the DRDO/CABs AWACS currently being deoped on the EMB-145 platform. The AWACS (India) project envisages a wide-bodied a/c with a radardome like on the A-50EI PHALCON or E-3. I would have preceded if these two follow-one were based on a airplane other than the A-50 but oh well.



And wrt the AWACS (India) the minister said 84 months (7 years) to cometd from sanction- has this sanction been given yet?

@sancho @arp2041 @anyone ??

If I am not wrong project is sanctioned some 3/4 years ago. Right now we are testing AWACS mini. Full 360 is developed and under testing. But I guess the platform for it is yet to be selected. No news on that front from last 6 months. So let's say 6 more month for selection and 2 years to delivery. That would make AWACS India 3/3.5 years in future. So 7(3/4+3/3.5)years sounds correct to me.
I am not sure though. Correct me if I am wrong

 

[PRINCE_THE_SHOWSTOPPER]

This is an old news... i've read here only that it would be G-550 conformal AWACS from israel and the platform would be a Gulfstream 550 designed by IAI..any ways i think we need more than 5 (3+2) as even PAF operates 5 awacs and china around 20.

 

[Skull and Bones]

 

[arp2041]

@sancho @arp2041 @anyone ??

I think as current plans stand than IAF already has 3 Phalcon AWACS, they will surely go for 2 more but they don't want Il-76 platform for the AWACS. DRDO AE&W program is developing well & AFAIK there are plans to induct as much as 9 of them to complement the Phalcons.

AWACS (India) is a much more ambitious project which calls for building a 360 degree AWACS just like the Phalcons to mount on a bigger platform (maybe Airbus), the project is just in it's planning phase & may get approval by next year (IAF still has not finalized the platform), so i think around 2020 will be the date for induction.

 

[sancho]

Referring to the A-50EI PHALCON AWACS. This is a must IMO, these are the most advanced AWACS systems on the planet and there is a need for more than just 3 and even 5 but it seems the GoI/MoD is much more interested in gettin a similarly capable AWACS indigenously in the form of the AWACS (India) project that will build on the DRDO/CABs AWACS currently being deoped on the EMB-145 platform. The AWACS (India) project envisages a wide-bodied a/c with a radardome like on the A-50EI PHALCON or E-3. I would have preceded if these two follow-one were based on a airplane other than the A-50 but oh well.



And wrt the AWACS (India) the minister said 84 months (7 years) to cometd from sanction- has this sanction been given yet?

@sancho @arp2041 @anyone ??

Indeed and sadly we once again "hoped" for indigenous developments and delayed additional A50 Phalcon procurements which puts us in disadvantage now.
The part of AWACS India is about DRDO AWACS, so from the start of the development till induction of the first once into operational service.

I think as current plans stand than IAF already has 3 Phalcon AWACS, they will surely go for 2 more but they don't want Il-76 platform for the AWACS. DRDO AE&W program is developing well & AFAIK there are plans to induct as much as 9 of them to complement the Phalcons.

AWACS (India) is a much more ambitious project which calls for building a 360 degree AWACS just like the Phalcons to mount on a bigger platform (maybe Airbus), the project is just in it's planning phase & may get approval by next year (IAF still has not finalized the platform), so i think around 2020 will be the date for induction.

MoD/IAF stated once that 15 x AWACS aircrafts would be procured for IAF, with 3+2 A50 Phalcons and 3 x EMB 145 DRDO already under procurement. The 360° DRDO AWACS was just mentioned by DRDO, while it would be nuts to go for a 3rd type of aircraft. If the procurement will be done with any logical sense, we procure only additional EMB 145 DRDO AWACS for Western, and eastern borders. If shore based AWACS to control the sea lanes needs to be procured, we could go for even more EMB 145 platforms, with possibly 1 bigger typ in lower numbers again.

360° detection is not a big deal, since in most cases the aircrafts fly just along a straight line besides the border regions, more important would be to improve the T/R modules and the detection range of the radar system and using the EMB 145 DRDO AWACS in big numbers, is the best mix between cost and capability!