Airborne Early Warning Systems - A-50EI Phalcon, DRDO Netra AEW&C, DRDO AWACS

IAF Chief: Presently, IAF has 3 AWACS IL-76 & 3 AEW&C Embraer-145. Procurement/development of 6 AEW&C Mk-II Airbus-321 is underway + case for procurement of 6 more AEW&C Mk-IA Embraer-145 is under process. Sanction for procurement of AEW&C Mk-II's was accorded by CCS on 8 Sep 21.

 
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Fatalis said:
What is this MPSAMS?
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A bit more can be said, 36 man months work, milestone based. To be finished in 9 months time, ie up to June 2024. Now this is under user participation aka IAF directly involved & mission system mode/based. So probably no good to post in open.

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On surveillance & target acquisition and reconnaissance of (I-STAR) aircraft, Center For Airborne Systems (CABS) Director Dr K Rajalakshmi Menon says, "After the success of Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&C) which we delivered to Indian Air Force, it wanted to look at another aspect of surveillance. AEW&C looks predominantly for air-to-air. The Air Force is also required to do ground-to-air surveillance, that is when they projected the need for I-STAR. Because the requirement over there is to have a very good imaging radar. Very high-resolution imaging radar...This was projected somewhere in 2015, so DRDO had taken up a technology demonstration project & we have already progressed in that and the technology that is required is also progressing...In parallel Air Force has moved the case for the I-STAR program..."

Center For Airborne Systems (CABS) Director Dr K Rajalakshmi Menon says, "AEW&C is mainly for air-to-air detection, it will detect the incoming aircraft. Whereas I-STAR the usage is mainly like infiltration...It is basically the surveillance of what is happening across the border..."

 
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Thread on #CABS / #DRDO #AEWCSMKII The programme was sanctioned in 2021 for the design & development of 6 AEW&CS Mk-II aircraft on proven A-321. Based on the success of #AEWCSMk1 #Netra, IAF had projected the need for advanced version. The Mk-IIs will have a coverage of 300 degrees as compared to 240 degrees of Netra. Enhanced ranges even better than the imported systems. Several advanced systems with newer technologies onboard. IAF sources say the new bird will have data link system with better and higher data rate capabilities. The number of operators have doubled on Mk-2 as compared to Netra. Tenders are out for the selection process to identify the Development cum Production Partner (DcPP). Once DRDO starts the delivery of the systems, the selected #DcPP will be the single-point contact for the user. #MoD sources say that CABS will in turn transfer the know-how on development, integration, testing & maintenance to the DcPP. The 6 A-321s released by Air India are now with the IAF doing some internal duties. The DcPP is for mission systems development and the task of modification of aircraft is with Airbus. After the modifications are complete, the aircraft will come to CABS for integration. The first AEW&CS Mk-II should join the IAF ranks in 3-4 years from now.

 
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Things are moving 🎉
 

As Pakistan, China fly ahead, India guns for 12 more 'eyes in sky'​


NEW DELHI: India is now stepping on the gas to develop and induct advanced indigenous airborne early-warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft or "eyes in the sky", which will boost surveillance and detection capabilities along the China and Pakistan borders as well as help direct friendly fighters during air combat with enemy jets.

The DRDO-IAF combine is actively pushing ahead with progammes to develop six Mark-1A as well as six Mark-2 versions of the Netra AEW&C aircraft, three of which were earlier built and inducted from February 2017 onwards.

Sources said defence ministry will next week take up the acceptance of necessity (AoN) for the six Mark-1A aircraft, which will entail mounting active electronically scanned array antenna-based radars, electronic and signal intelligence systems on Brazilian Embraer jets, at a cost of around Rs 9,000 crore.
"These six AEW&C aircraft will be like the first three Embraer-145 jet-based Netra, which have 240-degree radar coverage. But there will be better software and more advanced technologies like new gallium nitride-based TR (transmit/receive) modules for the radars," a source said.

The developmental work on the six Mark-2 aircraft, with bigger and more capable versions of the AEW&C radars and sensors to be mounted on second-hand Airbus-321 planes bought from Air India, is already at an advanced stage at a cost of Rs 10,990 crore.

"Delivery of the first such AEW&C Mark-2 aircraft, which will also have an antenna in the nose in addition to the main dorsal antenna to give 300-degree radar coverage, should take place in 2026-27. Technologies from the Mark-2 aircraft, in fact, will flow into the Mark-1A ones," the source added.

Both the projects are critical for India because it is lagging far behind Pakistan, let alone China, in the AEW&C and AWACS arena. Apart from the three Netras, IAF only has three Israeli Phalcon AWACS mounted on Russian IL-76 transport aircraft - with 360-degree radar coverage and a 400-km range - that were inducted in 2009-2011 under a $1.1 billion deal.

Pakistan now has 11 Swedish Saab-2000 Erieye AEW&C and Chinese Karakoram Eagle ZDK-03 AWACS aircraft. China has around 30 AEW&C aircraft, including Kong Jing-2000 'Mainring', KJ-200 'Moth' and KJ-500 aircraft.

IAF felt the critical operational need for more AEW&C aircraft during the aerial skirmish with Pakistani fighters, which were aided by Saab-2000 Erieye AEW&C, in Feb 2019 after the cross-border Balakot air-strikes. The ongoing confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh has further driven home the requirement.

In a major plus for IAF, the existing Netras and the Phalcons are fully plugged into its integrated air command and control system (IACCS). This fully-automated air defence network with data links is being progressively expanded to integrate the wide array of military radars with each other as well as with civilian radars to plug surveillance gaps in Indian airspace.
 
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Hydra said:
swarajyamag.com

How Indian Air Force Lost To Pakistan In The AWACS Numbers Game

swarajyamag.com

How come a failed economy able to pull a healthy awacs fleet & india cannot.

@randomradio do 360 deg type DRDO awacs is officially closed?
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They made cheaper decisions, we made more expensive decisions. Rafale, S-400, BMD purchases and base upgrades diverted funds away from AWACS and refuellers.

A330 future is unclear. It's not a good decision, but it is what it is. The IAF has chosen cheaper measures, which means we need to see how we develop space for surveillance. IAF plans to upgrade to a space force.
 
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As of now, apparently both Mk1a & mk2 aew&c programs are cleared for funding so both have good prospects. Hopefully done in a expedited process than take years.
 
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randomradio said:
A330 future is unclear. It's not a good decision, but it is what it is. The IAF has chosen cheaper measures, which means we need to see how we develop space for surveillance. IAF plans to upgrade to a space force.
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Imagine if we had taken local production line & IPR for C17 Globmaster as we did with Dornier, we could have use that platform for our
1)360 deg AWACS
2)EW attack aircraft
3)Desi JSTAR
4) Strtaegic lifter
5) as maritime surveillance aircraft &
6) mid air refueller
A common aircraft for many job.
 
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Hydra said:
Imagine if we had taken local production line & IPR for C17 Globmaster as we did with Dornier, we could have use that platform for our
1)360 deg AWACS
2)EW attack aircraft
3)Desi JSTAR
4) Strtaegic lifter
5) as maritime surveillance aircraft &
6) mid air refueller
A common aircraft for many job.
Click to expand...

C-17 is too expensive for local production.
 
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We are making use of C 295 for everything now, as it could be Sanctions resistant.

Hopefully we ll get MTA that can be used for multipurpose like tanker and 360 awac .

We could try truly be independent if we could get an engine deal leveraging civilian planes.
 
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