The first fully modified Brazilian Embraer aircraft fitted with indigenous Airborne Warning and Control System (AEW&C) took to skies on December 6 at Sao Jose campus of Embraer in Brazil with about 1000 mission system components developed by Indian defence scientists.
The most crucial component in AEW&C was the active electronic scanning antenna (AESA) radar, which has better reach and capability. Bangalore-based Centre for Airborne Studies developed the Indian AESA radar.
“The flight is a major milestone towards realising the dream of an indigenous Airborne Early Warning and Control System, which will put India into a select club of countries,” said V K Saraswat, scientific adviser to the defence minister and DRDO chief.
While the first indigenous aircraft will undergo full certification process over the next two years, India will receive two aircraft by the middle of 2012, which will be equipped with various systems and electronic components, currently being tested at CABS.
India currently operates three Israeli Phalcon AWACS – fitted on Russian made IL-76 – and likely to offer three more. The first three were purchased in a $ 1.1 billion deal, which was supported by the USA, notwithstanding objections from Pakistan.
Defence minister A K Antony acknowledged in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that a proposal for procurement of additional IL-76 based AWACS from ELTA Systems Limited, Israel, under option clause of previous contract signed in March, 2004 is under the consideration of the government.
Detailed test
Two indigenous systems would be delivered to IAF after detailed test and evaluation by 2013, said a DRDO official. The Indian AWACS programme originally began in the 1990s but came to a screeching halt after an Avro aircraft carrying the Indian instrument crashed in Nilgiri hills in Tamil Nadu in 1999.