The flying radar

Depending on the size and radar cross-section of a target, the AEW&C can detect and track aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles and other airborne threats, providing a detection range of 250 to 375 kilometres. This lets the aircraft look deep into the enemy airspace to detect any movement, while orbiting safely within the Indian territory and at the same time picking up surface and maritime targets.

The aircraft’s mission suite includes an indigenous identification friend or foe system to distinguish enemy aircraft from friendly ones, electronic support measures to detect and locate enemy radar and communication emissions and communications support measures for signals intelligence.

The onboard computer data fuses all sensor data into a single, real-time recognised air picture, which is then shared over secure data links with fighter jets in the air and with ground-based command centres through the IAF’s Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS). It has up to five operator workstations aboard, which act as airborne controllers, directing interceptors and coordinating air defence in real time.

It also includes a structurally fitted in-flight refuelling probe that gives the aircraft extended time on station, letting it maintain an unbroken radar picture over long surveillance and combat air patrol missions without having to return to the base to refuel.

The FOC marks the system’s transition from a developmental platform to one cleared for operations, meeting all Air Staff Qualitative Requirements laid down by the IAF. The certification, granted after nine years of operational service, makes the system deployable across the full spectrum of missions- from peacetime border surveillance to offensive and joint operations, closing the gap in India's airborne surveillance fleet.

Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (retired) said the grant of FOC, though much delayed, is good news for the IAF’s airborne surveillance capability as it confirms that Netra now meets all operational requirements laid down by the service. “An airborne surveillance system — including AEW&C and Airborne Warning and Control System —plugged into IAF’s IACCS makes for potent radar coverage of the nation’s skies as well as for looking deep into an adversary’s airspace for advance warning of incoming aircraft movements and subsequent aerial interceptions,” he said. Bahadur said the next step is mounting a bigger and more powerful radar on six Airbus A321 aircraft transferred from Air India to the IAF, a programme still in progress. “The advantage is that, being indigenous, it gives DRDO the autonomy for further improvements,” he added.