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An airborne early warning and control system mounted on an Embraer aircraft. File photo
Aero India 2015: India gains indigenous AEW&C capability
India's AEW&C capability is about to be boosted by the advent of new Embraer EMB-145I aircraft.
Currently still undergoing trials with DRDO, the first of three indigenously developed AEW&C systems is planned to be delivered to the Indian air force in June, it has emerged. All three systems should be delivered by December, DRDO officials told MT. The EMB-145I aircraft that are part of the system are being modified under auspices of DRDO's Centre for AirBorne Systems (CABS) which acts as the systems integrator. India's domestic aerospace industry's role is mostly limited to providing special mission equipment but is in general not involved during integration, with the exception of Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) that has been selected as the engineering and life support agency for the aircraft's mission systems. In addition to AEW&C, the Embraer based system is also designed to perform battle management, ELINT, COMINT and airspace management. Fitted with additional fuel tanks and IFR capabilty, the aircraft has an endurance of up to 5 hours. Despite the addition of special mission equipment, the aircraft retains good hot and high performance.
Manufactured by Hyderabad based Astra Microwave Systems, the aircraft's S-band AESA radar is capable of detecting low RCS targets at long ranges with CABS personnel present during Aero India demonstrating data that showed correlated tracks involving radar, ESM and IFF input at up to 350 kilometers. The same officials indicated that the primary surveillance radar would be both S and L-band, however this appears not to correlate with Astra Microwave Systems' information. BEL was said to be manufacturing the aircraft's VHF/UHF SATCOM system while CABS, DRDO developed the IFF Mk XII (S) system. A total of five VHF, UHF radius are fitted. Also fitted is a Ku-band datalink that has shown to be capable of distributing data to other aircraft including Su-30MKI and MiG-21UPG fighters during trials. A C-band datalink is used for air-ground transmissions. The elaborate RWR-ESM-SPS suite has been developed by DRDO's Defence Avionics Research establishment (DARE). The self protection element consists of a missile approach warning system (MAWS) and a counter measure dispensing system (CMDS). With regard to the radar warning receivers, a high probability of intercept across the operational RF spectrum is guaranteed through wideband multi-bit digital receivers, according to information provided by DARE . The ESM's narrowband multi-bit digital receiver is also reported to be highly sensitive.
Equipped with five operator workstations, MT was told that the system has already demonstrated to be able to track up to 50 targets within a 300 kilometer radius. Theoretically, this system should be able to cope with a maximum of 500 targets. Each system also includes a ground station. An additional order for three systems to complement the larger Il-76 based AEW&C aircraft that were converted by IAI was said to be likely. This would also result in a total of six ground exploitation stations which would be distributed over the country, acting as an interface for the country's Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS). The aircraft's graphical user interface is almost identical to that of what the Indian military continues to call the Phalcon, hereby limiting training efforts needed to progress from one system to another. IAI ELTA officials pointed out that technically the Phalcon designation is incorrect as this was only used for the initial conformal AEW upgrade of Chile's Boeing 707 aircraft.
Six EMB145I AEW&C aircraft would be capable of covering most of India's airspace. However, this would mean all six would need to be airborne which is highly unlikely considering planned maintenance, training etc. Asked about how the new aircraft would complement "Phalcon", MT was told that the Israeli system with its greater size and power arrangements would be used for detecting threats at longer ranges due to its radar being more powerful. Noteworthy, a mock up of an A330 based AEW&C system was on display at CABS' indoor exbibition booth during Aero India. This was said to be a preliminary study. However, with India also committed to buying A330 MRTT aircraft, there would be good reason for the IAF to indeed opt for the Airbus aircraft and have it fitted with indigenous equipment. This modern platform could then replace the current long range Il-76 based AEW&C capability.
