India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is reportedly going to make six new Airborne Early Warning and control planes on aircraft from Air India fleet to further improve Air Force's surveillance capabilities along the borders with China and Pakistan, giving a major boost to the indigenous defence industry.
“The AEW&C Block 2 aircraft will be developed by the DRDO under a Rs 10,500 crore project, the six aircraft would be acquired from the Air India fleet and modified to fly with a radar that will give 360-degree surveillance capability to the defence forces,” news agency ANI quoted government sources as saying.
The six new 'eyes in the sky' would be stationed at different places in the countries for effective surveillance along both the borders, the sources told ANI.
The six AEW&C block 2 planes would be highly capable than their predecessor NETRA plane and provide 360-degree coverage deep inside the enemy territory during missions, accoring to the ANI report,
India may not buy the six Airbus 330 transport aircraft planned to be acquired earlier from the European firm as the project to build the AEW&C system will be on existing aircraft from the Air India fleet, the report added.
As per the original plan, the six new aircraft would have been sent to a European destination to the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for modification of the planes for installing the radar.
This project is in line with the government's efforts to promote "Make in India" in defence and Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
Block-I of the project was delayed beyond the scheduled timelines but with the prior experience under its belt, the Centre for Airborne Studies lab of DRDO is planning to complete it in a shorter timeframe.
The IAF has three PHALCON AWACS systems bought by it from Israel and Russia under which the radar is provided by the Israelis whereas the platform used is the Russian Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft.
The two NETRA aircraft provided by the DRDO have also performed very well in the recent conflicts where they have flown extensively to keep an eye on the enemy activity.
