Given India’s slow process for even offthe-shelf purchases, failure by DRDO could easily set the country’s medium AEW&C efforts back by another five years or more. And this would be happening in the backdrop of India’s arch adversary Pakistan having already fielded two advanced types of AWACS platforms.

May 28, 2009, was a red-letter day for the IAF as it witnessed the formal and ceremonious induction of the first of the three IL-76 airborne warning and control system (AWACS) into the newly raised No. 50 Squadron based at the Air Force Station, Agra. A beaming Defence Minister A.K. Antony said at the event, “The AWACS will enhance our offensive and defensive preparedness,” attended by the Ambassadors Konstanin Vasikiev and Mark Soffer of Russia and Israel, respectively, as also the then Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major and the then Chief-designate Air Marshal Pradip Vasant Naik. “In an era of networkcentric warfare, the Uzbek made, Russia modified and Israel installed AWACS has the first 360 degrees phased array radar with the largest and the heaviest dome. The unblinking three antennas can assess long distance targets and eavesdrop on the enemy,” explained Major enthusiastically.

But that is history now. It was in March 2004, India and Israel signed a $1.1 billion ( Rs. 5,500 crore) deal for the Israeli Aerospace Industries to supply the IAF three Phalcon radar systems. Earlier, India had signed a separate deal worth an additional $500 million ( Rs. 2,500 crore) with the Ilyushin Corporation of Russia for the supply of three IL-76 air-lifters, which were to be used as platforms for the Israeli Phalcon radar systems. The first aircraft after suitable integration of the radar system with the IL-76 platform was schedule to arrive in India by September 2007, but owing to undue delay in the supply of the aircraft to Israel to begin the system integration, the entire project got delayed by approximately two years. The deliveries however stuck to the rescheduled inductions and by end 2011, all three AWACS had been duly inducted into the IAF. With these inductions, India also joined an elite club of six other nations—the US, Russia, UK, Japan, Australia and Turkey—to operate such a sophisticated system.

Undoubtedly, the Phalcon-equipped AWACS has proved to be a great force-multiplier for the IAF, being able to provide real-time intelligence, and command and control needed to attain and maintain air superiority in selected airspace over the combat zone and to enable surveillance deep inside enemy territory. The IAI/ELTA Phalcon system which incorporates the EL/M-2075 AESA phased array radar and a bevy of sensors including IFF, ESM/ELINT and CSM/COMINT, coupled with a unique fusion technique gives the entire system unparalleled capabilities. These have been proven time and again during the various operational exercises conducted by the IAF in the last couple of years. So pleased is the IAF by the AWACS that it wants to add more systems to cater to its operational requirements. But while the IAF projected a requirement of three more aircraft, the latest reports suggest that the number of additional inductions may be restricted to two.

But keeping in view the vast airspace of the country and other areas of interest which the IAF may like to dominate during hostilities, mere five AWACS would prove to be grossly inadequate for the operational tasks. On the other hand, high costs of acquiring such complex systems inhibit their inductions into the IAF in larger numbers. A combination of these factors and a desire to attain self-reliance in this hightech field has spurred the defence establishment to develop its own low-cost airborne early warning and control system (AEW&CS).