Indian AESA Radar Developments
- Thread starter ni8mare
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RCI was developing 2 AESA seekers. One was a Ku-band seeker, the other a X-band seeker. Both seekers were to be manufactured by Astra Microwave.
The Ku-band AESA seeker is gong in to the Akash-NG:
The X-band AESA seeker is probably for a longer range AD system. Here is the X-band seeker:
There are 2 Long range AD missiles being developed right now that could use the X-band seeker.
The AD-1:
And the XR-SAM:
Wonder if they are still working on this:
This missile was initially thought to be the XR-SAM. Very similar in configuration to the AD-1 & the XR-SAM but the 2nd stage uses the SFDR engines instead of the dual/multi pulse propulsion likely to be seen on the XR-SAM & AD-1
The Ku-band seeker looks a little different from the one see on this picture:
Is there another Ku-AESA seeker in the works ? Probably for Astra Mk-2.
Sharp eyes @Ashwin.
There is a radar panel under going front end integration behind the man with the turban. The panel is octagonal like the MF-STAR. But the MF-STARs are directly imported from Israel. They are not made or even assembled in India.
So this could be DRDO's LRMFR :
Thought the LRMFR shares visual similarities with the MF-STAR it is a completely Indian radar.
We saw a model of the LRMFR at the Balasore missile test facility during a Pinaka missile test. It is possible that the radar was undergoing instrumentation then. Having a live target to track is essential for calibration of new radars.
There are a number of ships being built right now that use the MF-STAR, namely the Vizag class destroyers & the Nilgiri class frigates. The Vizag class ships are in pretty advanced stage so they are definitely use the MF-STAR. But the Nilgiri class can use the LRMFR instead. The Nilgiris are not close to doing radar integration yet & by the looks of it BEL is already making the LRMFRs.
BEL has already delivered 2 LRMFR panels for INS Anvesh. Now there are more being built, but where are they going to be used ?
The IAF had a requirement for static 4 walled AESA radars for AD applications. Don't know what happened to that program. If there was an order surely it will be for the IAF's AD application or Navy's Nilgiri class radars.
It would be a performance booster if the Nilgiri class got these radars. It would also reduce the price of those ships. Right now they cost as much as a destroyer.
There is a radar panel under going front end integration behind the man with the turban. The panel is octagonal like the MF-STAR. But the MF-STARs are directly imported from Israel. They are not made or even assembled in India.
So this could be DRDO's LRMFR :
Thought the LRMFR shares visual similarities with the MF-STAR it is a completely Indian radar.
We saw a model of the LRMFR at the Balasore missile test facility during a Pinaka missile test. It is possible that the radar was undergoing instrumentation then. Having a live target to track is essential for calibration of new radars.
There are a number of ships being built right now that use the MF-STAR, namely the Vizag class destroyers & the Nilgiri class frigates. The Vizag class ships are in pretty advanced stage so they are definitely use the MF-STAR. But the Nilgiri class can use the LRMFR instead. The Nilgiris are not close to doing radar integration yet & by the looks of it BEL is already making the LRMFRs.
BEL has already delivered 2 LRMFR panels for INS Anvesh. Now there are more being built, but where are they going to be used ?
The IAF had a requirement for static 4 walled AESA radars for AD applications. Don't know what happened to that program. If there was an order surely it will be for the IAF's AD application or Navy's Nilgiri class radars.
It would be a performance booster if the Nilgiri class got these radars. It would also reduce the price of those ships. Right now they cost as much as a destroyer.
Logic also says that MF star should be replaced by this indigenous radar which I suppose is much better in performance.
Any idea which secondary radar is going to be used in BMD phase 2 @Gautam
Yes. But it also has to make sense budget & timeline wise. It makes no sense to have ships wait for new radars, especially when the deliveries of the Vizag class has been abysmally slow. Niligiri class however has come up right on time to recieve these radars. By the time the 1st ship of the Nilgiris get to radar integration the Navy would have used the INS Anvesh enough to have confidence in the new radar.
I hope they take the call. Or may be they have already, who knows.
Secondary radar ? What do you mean by that ?
As far as I can tell the Swordfish & the LRTR does both volume scan & fire control for the BMD phase 1. For Phase 2 we will likely use a combination of the Swordfish, LRTR, MOTR etc. for both the jobs.
There are no primary & secondary radars if the radars involved is doing both jobs.
India's BMD has the Indo-Israeli based L-band LRTR for volume scan and Indo-French S- band MFCR for fire control. There is also an unknown X band component, but it's still unclear.
LRTR and Swordfish are basically the same. The new one can basically be called Swordfish Mk2, Super Swordfish etc.
Oh yeah forgot about that. That was for FCR ? What is the range of that thing ? It seemed much smaller than the Swordfish/LRTR
Also why is it Indo-French ? I thought we purchased it from Thales.
I thought the Swordfish et al do everything; targeting & scanning.
The one on INS Dhruv ? There might be a land based version of the same.
Same architecture. Different TRMs & HEMTs.
Yes. Is that the 4-5k km ranged one ?
As per DRDO, it has a 370 Km track range and can track missiles moving up to mach 10.
What we do know is there are multiple versions of it.
It has a secondary targeting capability owing to its size, but it could push the missile towards its red lines and reduce KP. You would also sacrifice resources towards tracking.
Possibly. No point in speculating though. But if Dhruv and Anvesh are meant for testing, then you can be sure the hardware on them will be the same as the land based systems.
Yeah.
There are three versions actually. One from Israel, one indigenised, the third one has been upgraded significantly.
So its not a straight forward acquisition ? A bit like the Swordfish.
Yes this is a problem. Although it can be overcome if sufficient number of radars are available.
I suppose it is always easier to purchase smaller FCRs that larger multi-purpose radars.
Yeah, we need it talking to all our systems. Anyay, it would have started off with a straightforward acquisition, like the Greenpine.
The smaller FCRs are needed to be positioned alongside both static and mobile BMD batteries. Even the LRTR will come in both fixed and mobile configurations.
If we go by the IAF's usual configuration, we may see the LRTR as part of the squadron HQ, while smaller radars are used in batteries, possibly only the MFCR. We haven't yet seen the full BMD configuration.
For now I'm basically guessing the squadron HQ will have 1 large LRTR and 1 large S band radar, and the battery component will have 2 small S band radars. And this is for Phase 1.
It seems work on Photonics based sensors has progressed to prototyping & small scale application stage :
First get the mk1 operational.
Its a problem with us. Just like in Tejas program, we still to date haven't completed all the certifications on the Tejas trainer aircraft for IAF, but we are going around blabbering of SPORT.
Get the step 1 completed before saying we are going to complete step 3.
Its a problem with us. Just like in Tejas program, we still to date haven't completed all the certifications on the Tejas trainer aircraft for IAF, but we are going around blabbering of SPORT.
Get the step 1 completed before saying we are going to complete step 3.