India supplies more radars to Sri Lanka

[Adux]

India supplies more radars to Sri Lanka
Sandeep Dikshit


To help ward off airborne LTTE attacks




NEW DELHI: After a gap of a year, India has sent more radars to Sri Lanka to help it ward off the threat of airborne attacks by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Defence Ministry sources said.

India had resumed non-lethal military aid to Sri Lanka with the supply of two indigenous radars in 2005. This year in January it sent another military radar to Sri Lanka which was followed by the despatch of a similar radar in June. The radars were sent on behalf of the Indian Air Force, the sources said.

Ironically, both radars were sent from the Hindon military base on the outskirts of Delhi. This was the place from where helicopters were despatched via Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu to rescue the LTTE leader V. Prabakaran at Vadamarachchi on the northern tip of Jaffna after the Sri Lankan Army had cornered him in the late 80s.

India first broke off its self-imposed embargo of nearly five years when it sent two Indra-II radars on the eve of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse’s first visit in 2005. The radars, developed by the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), can detect low-flying fighter aircraft. They were produced by the public sector Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

Sri Lanka operates naval fast attack craft supplied earlier by India but sources in the Indian Navy could not confirm whether boats, configured to chase and hunt down small ships generally operated by the LTTE Naval Tiger wing, had also been sent. They felt such a deal was unlikely because India itself was facing a shortage of these vessels.

Diplomatic sources here said India’s supply of radars, said to be in the non-lethal category, in no way compromised its desire for a political solution to the Tamil issue.

India claims it was forced to supply the radars to prevent Pakistan and China from fulfilling Sri Lanka’s need. New Delhi was uncomfortable with the idea of Islamabad or Beijing-built surveillance equipment being installed close to its shore.

The first lot of radars were sent after Sri Lanka told the then External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh about its requirement and the willingness of other countries to supply them.

In March this year, LTTE aircraft had targeted a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) base near Colombo leading to speculation that the radars supplied by India were defective. However, Sri Lanka later said the reports were wrong.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/06/stories/2007080656221300.htm