India’s New AWACS Project Will be on display at AERO India 2021
Indian Air force ideally requires 30 x AWACS with 360 °coverage. Presently we have just 3 x IL76 mounted AWACS and 2x Embraer mounted Netra system.
So DRDO is working on a 360 degree radar mounted on a brand new Airbus A330 aircraft. However prior to the final product the new Airborne Early Warning & Control System (AWACS) project is going to be tested on a modified Airbus A320 aircraft with a 240 degree coverage antenna. This has broken cover with a model of the aircraft on display at Aero India 2021.
Last December, Ministry of Defence had okayed the development of six new AWACS planes to be built by the DRDO and based on a modified Airbus A320 jets sourced from Air India.
Details of the AWAC under development by the Centre of Airborne Systems (CABS), a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratory have appeared on Twitter a few days ahead of the official opening of the show.
The model of the new AWACS has a 240 degree radar similar to the ‘Netra’ early warning system developed by the CABS-DRDO and mounted on an Embraer platform. It will also have a nose mounted active electronically scanning array (AESA) radar, the chopped off nose in the model seems to suggest.
The Netra early warning system was inducted in 2017 and since then indigenous AWACS systems developments have been quite rapid. Besides the Netra, the Indian air force (IAF) has the3x Israeli Phalcon system mounted on an Russian Il-76 platform. Two more IL76 systems are supposed to be on order with Israel.
However with successful trial of the Boeing A320 AWAC, IAF will straight away go for the 6x A320 based ones with 240 degree coverage capability. Thereafter the possibility remains for adding more AWACS with 360° civerage at regular intervals.
