IAF seeks more AWACS
NEW DELHI, Apr 1: The Indian Air Force has projected a need for more Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) to enhance its capability to counter emerging missile threats in the skies and waters around the country.
India has inked a 1.1 billion dollar deal with Israel to purchase three Phalcon AWACS mounted on Russian Il-76 aircraft, and the IAF has now asked the Government to clear the induction of up to five more aircraft.
With each aircraft capable of mounting surveillance for up to 14 hours with in-flight refuelling, the AWACS will extend "strategic reach" far beyond Indian airspace, IAF officials said.
Under the Phalcon deal, New Delhi has an option to acquire three to five more AWACS from Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) that would be delivered during 2009-12.
India will receive the first of the three Phalcon systems by September and the remaining two by 2009. The IAF has trained about 250 personnel in Israel for operating the complex systems comprising sophisticated radars and sensors. In addition, 450 personnel have been trained to man ground facilities for the AWACS systems.
DRDO, which recently reviewed its indigenous airborne early warning (AEW) programme, has submitted to the Government a proposal to develop a system costing 500 million USD. The project was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in September 2004.
But the DRDO project, which envisages mounting an Indian system on a Brazilian Embraer aircraft, has not found much favour with the IAF, as the jet does not have a flight endurance of 10 hours and cannot cruise at altitudes above 40,000 feet.
IAF officials said the new system will only have a range of 300 km and a surveillance arc of only 240 degrees. The force wants the DRDO project, whose delivery schedule has already slipped from 2012 to 2016, to be turned into an "airborne battlefield surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance system".
The officials said the DRDO system would be an additional prop for the main Phalcon AWACS system. The DRDO system could thus be used to undertake real-time surveillance of the ground battlespace over a span of 120 km and a depth of 80 km.
"It would provide a network-centric scenario to the army, Navy and IAF," an official said. DRDO is using a L-band radar derived from the Rajendra radar developed for the Akash surface-to-air missile.
The IAF officials said the induction of more Phalcons systems as would help the force create theatre-based airborne command and control posts for airspace surveillance and management tasks.
Six to eight Phalcons could be used for round-the-clock surveillance across the country, they said. (PTI)
