They were not bought,but gifted. SL did no pay for it. India cannot sell advanced weaponry SL to due to internal political compulsion.I dont expect you to post such replies sniperji, you should know better.
Think for yourself....who exactly put pressure on Chinese radars? Has to be the SL govt herself. If SL was NOT in Indias influence, the Chinese radars would have been bought.
Now, on to more reasons...The radar they wanted was Chinese 3-D radar. Do you know why 3-D radar is needed? So that it can direct the SAM's. It calculates the location of the plane in the third axis. Does SL have any SAM's?? Why then does it need 3-D radars. This is the reason in the end, 2-D radars were chose.
It is a simple issue that SLAF did not expect the LTTE to use it's propeller driven birds to bomb the base. With such a attitude even if it buys the most advanced radar network,it is no use. LTTE having an airforce was detected long time back,they did not bother. Why blame India then?
The 3D radar is capable of detecting, tracking, and classifying various types of targets with a particular emphasis on small, fast and low-flying aircraft, missiles and hovering helicopters. It can be deployed as a stand-alone radar or can be integrated into air defence networks in coordination with other radars and command control systems.
Even if SLAF detected the aircraft using some 3d radar, what next? They don't having night fighting capabilities and LTTE bombed then around 7 in the evening. What is the point of having 3d radar. There is no report of a single aircraft chasing the LTTE after the attack,becoz no night fighting ability.
But then everyone would like to believe it is India's fault.SLAF underestimated LTTE on it's own peril.