IAF to get six new 'eyes in the sky' to look into China, Pak; Read More-

New Delhi, Dec 18: Bolstering the indigenous defence industry, India is going to make six new Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) planes to be developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on aircraft from Air India. This will help further to improve Indian Air Force's surveillance capabilities along borders with China and Pakistan.

 

 

The AEW&C Block 2 aircraft will be developed by the DRDO under a Rs 10,500 crore project and 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. They would be highly capable than their predecessor NETRA plane and provide 360-degree coverage deep inside the enemy territory during missions.

 

The project to build the AEW&C system on existing aircraft from the Air India fleet may also mean that India may not buy the six Airbus 330 transport aircraft planned to be acquired earlier from the European firm, the sources said.

 

The DRDO had earlier planned to build six Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) on the Airbus 330 aircraft for which some facilities were planned to be created in Bengaluru.

 

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. The six new 'eyes in the sky' would be stationed at different places in the countries for effective surveillance long both the borders.