Amidst the ongoing standoff amongst India and China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a increasing want is becoming felt for assets to support in monitoring the enemy movements round the clock on land, air and sea. On Thursday, at the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) gave approval for many platforms, gear and systems for the 3 services – Army, Navy and Air Force at an approximate all round price of Rs 28,000 crore.
According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) stated that six of the seven proposals — Rs 27,000 crore of Rs 28,000 crore for which AoN (Acceptance of Necessity) was granted — is anticipated to be sourced from the Indian sector, and this will give a increase to `Atmanirbhar Bharat and `Make in India’ initiatives.
The approval has been granted for the acquisition of the DRDO created and created AEW&C Systems for the Indian Air Force, Next Generation Offshore Patrol Vessels for the Indian Navy and Modular Bridges for the Indian Army.
What is AWACS?
Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) are eyes in the sky and are employed for not only tracking but also assisting in detecting the fighter jets, cruise missiles, and drones. And, these are more quickly than the ground-primarily based radars, can be employed in monitoring and tracking the ships out at sea.
What will the services get?
The original strategy was to have the AEW&C systems have been to be fixed on bigger body jets A-330 which have been earlier anticipated to be procured from Airbus. However, this procurement programme was place on hold.
Now, six A-319s and A-321 variants which are anticipated to be acquired from the Air India Fleet and modified will be possessing the AEW&C Systems fitted onboard. The indigenous Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar is going to be mounted on them.
According to sources, the Centre for Airborne Studies Lab (CABS) below DRDO is in the course of action of executing the Block-2 project. This is anticipated to be considerably more sophisticated than the current systems.
What do the services have?
As reported earlier by TheSpuzz Online, the IAF currently has the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. These are meant to monitor the airspace deep inside the enemy territory and they operate on safe communication with network-centric warfare capabilities.
Three Israeli Phalcon AWACS are onboard Russian IL-76 transport aircraft, and there are two `Made in India’ two indigenous ‘Netra’ AEW&C aircraft. IAF got its second `Netra’ in 2019. The AEW&C technique created indigenously comes with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, and it has secondary surveillance radar, communication and electronic countermeasures.
This indigenous AEW&C was mounted on a Brazilian Embraer-145 aircraft, created particularly to suit the operational specifications of the IAF. It has a state-of-the-art integrated technique and has the air-to-air refuelling capability.
Multiple sensors, and these support in choosing up the low-level targets deep which are inside the enemy’s airspace.
Why are they named eye in the sky?
They are named `eye’ in the sky due to the fact these AWACS have superior surveillance capabilities.
Efforts are on to integrate Indo-Russian BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles into the Russian fighter jets Su-30 MKI which have been modified as per the specifications of the IAF. This is becoming implemented by the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and the BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd (BAPL), which is an Indo-Russia joint venture.
What does Pakistan have?
Based on the info obtainable in the public domain, Pakistan has more `eyes’ in the sky compared to India. Currently, it has six of the Saab 2000 early warning aircraft.
When did IAF get its very first indigenous AEW&C?
In 2017 and as reported earlier, has due to the fact then is offering Air Defence surveillance and handle from distinct terrains which stretch from Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and to the Rann of Kutch.