Indian AESA Radar Developments

[marich01]

Astra Microwave's "6m S-band AAAU for strategic naval application of DRDO" is due for delivery in 2023-24 according to their annual report.
The LR-MFR predecessor is to be installed on INS Anvesh first.

Astra Microwave's "6m S-band AAAU for strategic naval application of DRDO" is due for delivery in 2023-24 according to their annual report. Had reported about it here: https://t.co/hMNQIuCn5F
The LR-MFR predecessor is to be installed on INS Anvesh first. pic.twitter.com/aCmVQ1Fn2l

— Adithya Krishna Menon (@AdithyaKM_) August 1, 2023

 

[Rajput Lion]

View attachment 29365
Astra Microwave Annual Report

This confirms that Astra 2 is going to have Ku-Band AESA seeker(delivery within this financial year itself). Awesome

 

[Sathya]

BEL Swathi Mark II/ WLR-M (mountain version) inducted by 🇮🇳 Army today is based on two 6×6 Tatra trucks, weighs 18 tons. Mk1 is based on 8x8 trucks & weighs 28+ tons.
Total IA order is at 48 iirc: 30 Mk1 inducted + 6 Mk2 being inducted & 12 Mk1 ordered
Armenia🇦🇲 has 4 Mk1 radars pic.twitter.com/TiPp0Absc8

— Adithya Krishna Menon (@AdithyaKM_) August 5, 2023

 

[Sathya]

 

[marich01]

Army seems to have deleted that tweet now?

 

[marich01]

BEL video of radar being delivered

The lighter version of Weapon Locating Radar, SWATHI Mountains, developed by BEL & LRDE has been inducted into Indian Army. Lt Gen. J B Chaudhari, SM, VSM, Dy Chief of Army Staff (CD&S) flagged off the RADAR system which will bolster Army's battlefield surveillance capabilities. pic.twitter.com/tSp80LuwQa

— Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) (@BEL_CorpCom) August 6, 2023

 

[marich01]

This DRDO ARDB sponsored paper is not entirely radar or seeker dev related, but very neat. Its on stealth related application.






Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsami.3c07669

 

[marich01]

More on that Astra Mw naval radar, good writeup

Explained: The Indian Navy' New Game-Changing Radar

The Astra AAAU provides a boost to the Indian's Navy's detecting, locating, and tracking capabilities. Over and above this, its development marks a major step for India being 'atmanirbhar' in defence.

swarajyamag.com

 

[marich01]

Well AMPL made it clear very much as @Rajput Lion been saying.

Uttam MK3 that will be mounted on Su30 MKi and LCA MK2 will have GaN TRM@LCAMK2 #SuperSukhoi pic.twitter.com/0w8RUjfUz3

— Alpha Defense™ (@alpha_defense) August 14, 2023

 

[South block]

GaN is a big Buzz word nowadays but what type of antenna array will be on this AESA Radar....Patch, slot, Dipole, Vivaldi ? Read somewhere it will be a UWB...so notch radiators ( Vivaldi ) than ?

 

[Lolwa]

GaN is a big Buzz word nowadays but what type of antenna array will be on this AESA Radar....Patch, slot, Dipole, Vivaldi ? Read somewhere it will be a UWB...so notch radiators ( Vivaldi ) than ?

We were capable of producing rbe 2 trm's (2 years ago) so it's possible

 

[Tatvamasi]

Well AMPL made it clear very much as @Rajput Lion been saying.

Uttam MK3 that will be mounted on Su30 MKi and LCA MK2 will have GaN TRM@LCAMK2 #SuperSukhoi pic.twitter.com/0w8RUjfUz3

— Alpha Defense™ (@alpha_defense) August 14, 2023

Wow, another twitter handle with *trust me bro* source.

People should be aware of their confirmation bias.

 

[Rajput Lion]

Well AMPL made it clear very much as @Rajput Lion been saying.

Uttam MK3 that will be mounted on Su30 MKi and LCA MK2 will have GaN TRM@LCAMK2 #SuperSukhoi pic.twitter.com/0w8RUjfUz3

— Alpha Defense™ (@alpha_defense) August 14, 2023

So far the plan(based upon power availability) is of a 1800 TRM count radar for MKI. But, I hope we develop 2000 TRM version. The performance of that radar would be game-changing, IMO.

GaN is a big Buzz word nowadays but what type of antenna array will be on this AESA Radar....Patch, slot, Dipole, Vivaldi ? Read somewhere it will be a UWB...so notch radiators ( Vivaldi ) than ?

Correct

We were capable of producing rbe 2 trm's (2 years ago) so it's possible

But those are GaAs modules. Here we're talking about GaN modules which are a quantum jump in tech over GaAs.

Wow, another twitter handle with *trust me bro* source.

People should be aware of their confirmation bias.

Dr. Das confirmed it during Aero India 2023. Nothing to be surprised.

 

[marich01]

Wow, another twitter handle with *trust me bro* source.

People should be aware of their confirmation bias.

Actually it is in the current Q Astra MW presentation mentioned as proposed, posted it in the industry thread. have a look in it there please, quite interesting, esp towards the end part some interesting bits added.

 

[Tatvamasi]

Actually it is in the current Q Astra MW presentation mentioned as proposed, posted it in the industry thread. have a look in it there please, quite interesting, esp towards the end part some interesting bits added.

View attachment 29786

So, are you telling me our first operational AESA will be GaN ?

Thats hard to believe. Why did they even order EL/M-2052 for the first batch then.

 

[Rajput Lion]

So, are you telling me our first operational AESA will be GaN ?

Thats hard to believe. Why did they even order EL/M-2052 for the first batch then.

You're reading it wrong. Uttam MK1 variant for Tejas MK1A will be based on GaAs TRMs. But after that all Uttam variants in development for MKI/MK2/AMCA would be based on GaN TRMs.

And I remember you told me to "hold my horses" when I said that last year. Under Modi we've made quantum jump in our domestic R&D. It's no mere optimism but hard reality.

 

[Tatvamasi]

You're reading it wrong. Uttam MK1 variant for Tejas MK1A will be based on GaAs TRMs. But after that all Uttam variants in development for MKI/MK2/AMCA would be based on GaN TRMs.

And I remember you told me to "hold my horses" when I said that last year. Under Modi we've made quantum jump in our domestic R&D. It's no mere optimism but hard reality.

Mudi took 10 years. Yet couldn't deliver a working airborne fire control radar or a UAV.

Under his watch defence budget and R&D is lowest as percentage of GDP.

Success has many fathers but failure has none.

 

[Rajput Lion]

Mudi took 10 years. Yet couldn't deliver a working airborne fire control radar or a UAV.

Under his watch defence budget and R&D is lowest as percentage of GDP.

Success has many fathers but failure has none.

The first 5 years were spent filling up the ditches created by the erstwhile gov. Things have started to change now for good. We are on the right track. That's what really matters.

 

[Hydra]

The first 5 years were spent filling up the ditches created by the erstwhile gov. Things have started to change now for good. We are on the right track. That's what really matters.

Lowest defense spending w.r.t gdp. Yeah, we should blame previous government.

 

[Rajput Lion]

Focusing on "self-reliance" vs imports and developing our domestic MIC has been the biggest achievement of Modi gov. We're on a verge of becoming a military superpower. People can live in denial, but the result is very obvious and it's most definitely in our favour.