Several layers of biometric security protect one of India’s most secretive military laboratories in Bengaluru, housed in a building where there are unsually low noise levels at all time. It’s an almost modest level of sound for an institution that has put India on a global map for equipment that no country will sell to India without unacceptable conditions. And it is here, at the Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE) that the Indian Air Force’s most formidable jet, the Su-30MKI is being given sharper teeth than it has ever had before.
The Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), the mother body of the DARE, has a rough time dealing with a reputation for waste and delays. To be sure, most criticism it faces is justified. Which is perhaps why it’s always heartening to hear about success. Scientists quietly working behind the scenes on small projects that are truly contributing to the lofty ideal of self-reliance. The story your correspondent reports on today isn’t doing just that — it’s also set to save the Indian Air Force precious capital going into the future.
It all begins with the Russian SAP-518 jammer pod that Moscow supplied with the Su-30MKI. After grappling for years with the pod, the Indian Air Force finally in 2015 realised it simply couldn’t use them for two reasons. One, they were heavy — and when slung onto wingtip hardpoints, they cut into flying envelope like a butcher’s knife.
‘With the Russian pods, the Sukhoi is basically a transport aircraft,’ one of the scientists says.
The second issue is even worse. The IAF realised the SAP-518 pod hadn’t been properly interfacing with the indigenous on-board radar warning receiver (RWR), therefore killing pilots’ chances to exploit both systems fully. While the reasons why the IAF took their time remains unclear (but at one level understandable), DARE stepped in immediately, offering to help. The result is the pod you see those three scientists standing next to in the photograph above.
DARE’s High Band Jammer (HBJ) pod begins dummy carriage trials in six months on an IAF Su-30MKI, with full integration within the year. By 2019, DARE has committed to seeing the pod become fully operational with the IAF’s Flanker fleet.
Significantly, the HBJ pod will be a fully indigenous one. A DARE scientist explains that the HBJ pod currently has th
ree major systems: the integrated EW suite, the active array phased transmit-receive unit and the cooling system. While the first two have been rapidly developed in-house, the complex cooling system is in process, with DARE sourcing an Israeli system for the moment. The team says they’ll have a fully functional Indian cooling system on the HBJ pod before full integration trials by the end of the year.
Better still, the HBJ pod, the scientists tell
Livefist, will spawn a family of EW sensors and systems for platforms like the LCA Tejas, MiG-29 and any other fighter the IAF chooses to operate.
The Indian Air Force, which has embraced the wares from DARE more than equipmentfrom most other DRDO labs is expectedly thrilled. An IAF Su-30MKI pilot at the show confirmed that the HBJ pod was a ‘very promising system’ and that ‘more than anything, it is our own in-house development, so I don’t have to run to the Russians if something doesn’t work’.
A DARE scientist associated with the project tells a familiar story: Russia’s unwillingness to share codes (or its insistence on an additional commercial understanding) that could have helped manage the interfacing issues between the SAP-518 pod and Indian RWR better and faster.
Incidentally, the indigenous DARE RWR on the IAF’s Su-30MKIs will also be
replaced soon. The lab is in final testing of an all digital RWR (the existing system is analog) christened ‘Dhruti’ that will begin ground testing in May this year, followed by a phased installation across the fleet.
DARE is one of the DRDO’s most low-profile laboratories and also one of its most successful. Its systems populate virtually every combat aircraft currently in service, including missile approach warning systems, mission computers and avionics of every kind.
A final little flourish from the unassuming DARE stand at Aero India is the SIVA pod, a development from the nineties that didn’t quite work out and was quietly abandoned. Recently, scientists dusted out from the corner of a DARE warehouse when a team of scientists suddenly realised they could help the people at BrahMos save a penny on testing the airborne seeker on the BrahMos-A.
With the new DRDL-led imaging and monopulse RF seeker (IMR, for a future variant of the BrahMos) fitted into the Siva pod in a matter of days (the DRDL had
tendered out for the integration process), the pod was quickly slung onto a Su-30MKI and sent up for the required airborne tests. It was an immediate success, with BrahMos Corp. sending a special word of thanks to the DARE team. Without that flash of brilliance from DARE, BrahMos would have had to hot-step it to Russia or elsewhere to get a testbed. And the Siva pod would have forever remained a failed relic from DARE’s early days. Instead it is now a valuable, cheap test-bed for high-performance systems.
‘Now we have a very capable in-house testbed capable of testing a variety of electronics and systems in the airborne regime. This is the beginning of a testbed capability that is normally very expensive to hire. It will be finetuned and evolved before being offered as a full-fledged service, perhaps even to foreign customers,’ says a DRDO officer.
https://www.livefistdefence.com/2017/02/how-a-secretive-drdo-lab-is-saving-the-iaf-su-30mki.html
India’s EW efforts
By all means, the development of Weapon Locating Radar (WLR) by the Bangalore based Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) of DRDO is a major boost to the EW efforts of the Indian defence forces. In addition to locating hostile artillery/mortar units and rocket launchers, WLR is capable of detecting projectiles with small cross sections across the battle space horizon. Further, it can handle simultaneous fire from weapons found in a variety of locations.
To expedite the development and qualification of radar based electronics warfare systems, DRDO has set up two new sophisticated test ranges-one at Chitradurga in Karnataka and the other at Tandur in Andhra Pradesh. Radar based sophisticated communication systems would use electromagnetic spectrum for attack, protection and warfare support to destroy the combat capabilities of the enemy.
It is in the fitness of things that DLRL and DARE (Defence Avionics Research Establishment) are focussing on the development of fourth generation EW Systems. According to former Indian President and a globally acknowledged defence and space scientist Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, “The electronics warfare system is a force multiplier which needs a high level of secrecy for maintaining surprise against adversary actions. In such a situation, it is essential that the system design, architecture and deployment knowledge is generated within the country and maintained as a closely guarded information by services. This is essential to ensure tactical and strategic advantages for our armed forces during an operation”.
Even as India lags behind US and China in the area of EW, efforts are nonetheless on to design and develop systems and combat platforms meant to take India’s capability in EW to the next level of sophistication.
For instance, Samyukta mobile electronics warfare system developed jointly by DRDO, BEL, and ECIL (Electronics Corporation of India Limited) as well as the Corps of Signals of the Indian Army is well suited for tactical battlefield use. It covers a wide range of frequencies and coverage in electronics spectrum is handled by the communications segment and non communications segment. Clearly and apparently, it has both electronic intelligence and communications intelligence capabilities built into it.
Obviously, Samyukta, the development of which was supported by over 40 Indian micro, small and medium industries, could very well serve as a test bed for developing futuristic EW systems of varying specifications. The system is composed of 400 individual entities and has the built in capability for surveillance, interception, monitoring, analysis, recording, location fixing and jamming of all communication and radar systems.
On the other hand, Mayavi electronic warfare suite designed and developed by DARE and BEL used in combat aircraft has many advantageous features. Mayavi is designed to enhance survivability during deep penetration and actual combat. Mayavi includes a radar warning receiver, missile approach warning system, laser warning receiver system and infra red ultraviolet missile warning sensor as well as self protection jammer, chaff, jaff and flares, electronics counter measure suite and a towed radar decoy.
DARE has also successfully equipped a range of fighter aircraft in service with the Indian Air Force (IAF) and warships with the Indian Navy with a variety of electronic armours composed of electronic support measures and self protection jammer. Indeed, DARE has made significant contribution to the area of air borne electronic warfare. The electronic warfare wing of DARE primarily focuses on the design and development of radar warning systems and warfare suites for a variety of fighter aircraft, military transport aircraft and helicopters with a view to enhance their survivability and mission accomplishment.
http://www.newwarfare.com/index.php?task=highlight&&id=133
Israeli firm bags electronic warfare suite deal for LCA Tejas
The Israeli firm was selected by the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) after issuing a multi-vendor tender in which around six to seven companies had participated, a senior Defence Ministry official told ANI here on Wednesday.
NEW DELHI: Israeli firm Elisra has bagged Rs 178 crore deal for developing the electronic warfare suite for the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mk1A aircraft being built for the Indian Air Force.
The Israeli firm was selected by the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics LimitedNSE 0.21 % (HAL) after issuing a multi-vendor tender in which around six to seven companies had participated, a senior Defence Ministry official told ANI here on Wednesday.
The official said the selection through a comprehensive process has helped in bringing down the cost of the electronic warfare suite.
“Development cost of the electronic warfare suite for the order placed by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited works out to Rs 177.43 crore which will include three prototypes and other support equipment,” he said.
The Israeli firm has also been involved in developing the D-29 EW suite for the upgraded MiG-29 aircraft fleet of the Indian Air Force in collaboration with the Indian public sector company Bharat Electronics LimitedNSE -3.31 % and the DRDO.
Defence Ministry official said the D-29 could not be used for the LCA Tejas as there was a need for major redesign for putting it on the indigenous plane.
HAL officials said they had initiated talks with the BEL for redesigning the D-29 for the LCA Tejas but it was not able to provide a proposal for the complete electronic warfare suite.
The Defence Ministry official said the DRDO and the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) also carried out a test to find out whether the D-29 could be used without modification on the LCA but the results found out that it was not “feasible”.
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