It seems 2 companies received ToT for the APS radar. AMPL & CoreEL:DRDO's upcoming APS radar:
Indian AESA Radar Developments
- Thread starter ni8mare
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This radar is not put on INS Anvesh. It seems it is for some other vessel or place. The date on the picture is reference.
Not ToT, rather development contract possibly L1 L2. Its still under development apparently.
Alternative to BARS radar on Su 30MKI. Please note, here the antenna can move left to right and up as well as down, whereas the original BARS antenna is fixed.A system by Data Patterns.
200 kms for 1m^2 target means that it'll detect VLO targets(-40dBsm) only from 20 kms. Hopefully Virupaksha performance is better than this one.
So finally it's confirmed. Another prediction made in 2022 proved correct @marich01 & @randomradio
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Yeah but that is also a very advance radar combining both GaAs & GaN elements along with a formidable EA capability.
Virupaksha thanks to its sheer size is going to be in a league of its own only bested by AESA radars of 6th gen like J-36(almost double the size of Virupaksha).
I always thought interleaving EW/EA modes would only be available on next-gen AMCA et all. A 2400 TRM all-GaN antenna + those HBJ pods will turn the MKI into a Growlerski/Wild Weasel in its own right. We don't even need the SAP-14/518 anymore. This makes the case for AL-41F/117S stronger though. Maybe they should buy a small batch for testing.
MKI's new radar operates only in X band. It cannot replace podded antennas.
Should be gunning for the 177S if it's production ready by the time Super Sukhoi upgrade comes online. If not, then the AL-41F could be the fallback option. But I agree, an engine upgrade is a must to extract full potential of the avionics upgrade.
The TWT to GaN difference in input power without a linearizer is massive, as much as 4 times. So Bars will need 20+ kVA input while GaN would need about 5.5-6 kVA to get the same output.
With 2400 TRMs, you can use the same input power to get multiple times higher output. But it also means Virupaksha isn't meant to push out more power than what GaAs already does. Each TRM could be limited to 9 or 10 W at peak instead of the potential 25+ W, never mind hundreds of watts.
Furthermore, you need peak power for sustained high power operations for long durations, which is not necessarily a goal here. If MKI will continue using the old generator, then its more efficient for sustained operations at 50% power, so the best you can use is 60 kVA in total with 2 generators. If 20-30 kVA is used by the radar, other electronics need to become more efficient to compensate when the radar is at peak. Alternatively GaN can provide much greater performance than Bars when operating at significantly lower power without having to take away power from other electronics.
So there are ways to manage power without having to upgrade the generator. Although it's desirable to see it pushed to 75 kVA on the MLU 'cause you never know what's coming just a few years later.
Virupaksha being a drop fit is great news, it means even non-MLU jets can still get a radar upgrade at the bare minimum, not just the EW suite.
