It’s the latest in India’s meandering search for more airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft.
Six Airbus A320 airliners operated by India’s national carrier Air India will be modified, integrated with sensors and delivered to the Indian Air Force as new airborne early warning & control (AEW&C) aircraft as part of a new plan cleared today. The Ministry of Defence today approved a Rs 10,500 crore (Rs 1.4 billion) program in which India’s Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) will integrate radars and sensor on six Airbus A320 commercial airliners from national carrier Air India’s current fleet. The six aircraft are to be sent to France, where they will be refurbished and modified to Indian Air Force/DRDO specifications.
If plans remain on track, the six aircraft will join the IAF to add AEW muscle to the pair of Embraer-DRDO AEW&C Netra jets in service and three older PHALCON AWACS jets. It is not clear if this new move, revealed in the Indian press on Wednesday, supplants earlier plans by the DRDO to deliver an Airbus A330 based AWACS system — though the two systems are significantly different in capability and scope.
Livefist learns that the A320 based AEW&C platform will sport a derivative of the dorsal antenna system fitted on the Netra jets, and not likely a radome solution as has been speculated since the news broke Wednesday. This, however, is still unclear. In the words of a scientist familiar with the program, it will involve “trying past experience with additional features”.
In 2015, the Indian MoD cleared a Rs 5113 crore program to build an Airbus A330 based AWACS system. While work on the dorsal radome has made progress at the DRDO’s Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) in Bengaluru, a contract for the aircraft platforms has remained elusive five years after the DRDO was cleared to begin procurement procedures.
The indigenous AWACS program itself has had an odd journey, with the IAF in 2018 asking the DRDO to ensure the AWACS platform it delivers can also double as a mid-air refueling tanker. The request was part of the frustrations the IAF was experiencing in trying to nail down a tanker purchase after a series of contest aborts. That separate quest for tankers has left the IAF exasperated enough to consider junking an outright purchase attempt and seriously look at the option to least mid-air tankers for the medium term.
this is a big and huge achievement for Indian Air space
If the government took the decision to use 6 of the A320s to modify them into AEW aircraft, is there a reason why they cannot take a similar decision and find suitable aircraft to modify them into tanker aircraft so that the needs of the Air Force are met at the earliest? Once they get the critically required number, they can have a longer term plan for new, specifically ordered aircraft for the refuellers. The world over, we read reports that various airlines have given out their aircraft to be converted to freighters, so there should be availability of suitable aircraft should they choose to look for it. Articles and interviews with Angad Singh that your website published had also put out a similar idea for sourcing fighters to maintain squadron strength. So one wonders why the govt, the DAC and the Air Force do not act on these lines, we all conjecture but really never find out
As usual , the military is left with scraps. Government has let the IAF down . It’s ridiculous that Indian Air Force need to take second hand planes from Air India ( an already ailing company ). Can’t we afford new planes for AWACS considering its irreplaceable role and Importance?
The lesser informed to the public in matters related to defence, the better it is. We surely do not want China and Pak to know details of these.
The Indian government bureaucracy delaying critical purchases has left the defence forces frustrated all the time. It should not take 40 years to buy replacement fighter jets for obsolete MiG 21’s. AWACS and flying tankers is another episode all by itself. Similarly, both the other forces are also crippled by the unending delays, insufficient budget allocations, and sheer incompetence by decision makers. Frequent changes in the requirements by the forces due to delays in getting much wanted equipment leads to further delays. At least for once the defence ministry has thought out of the box to get the aircraft for the IAF. Hope the Army gets their requirements also fulfilled as well as the Navy.
The Indian government bureaucracy delaying critical purchases has left the defence forces frustrated all the time. It should not take 40 years to buy replacement fighter jets for obsolete MiG 21’s. AWACS and flying tankers is another episode all by itself. Similarly, both the other forces are also crippled by the unending delays, insufficient budget allocations, and sheer incompetence by decision makers. Frequent changes in the requirements by the forces due to delays in getting much wanted equipment leads to further delays. At least for once the defence ministry has thought out of the box to get the aircraft for the IAF. Hope the Army gets their requirements also fulfilled as well as the Navy.
Hi Shiv,
There seems to be small error in this blog. The edited pictures posted are not of Airbus A320 but of Boeing 737 NG. The winglets of the aircraft are not of A320. Correct me if I am wrong.
Dear Sir,
As someone who has domain and industry knowledge, I would like to bring to your notice the Imprudence and wastage of National resources.
It has been reported that here (https://idrw.org/scale-model-of-a320-based-netra-2-0-aewcs-revealed/) wherein DRDO amd IAF plan to use Airbus A-320 for Awacs project.
It seems that that this proposal seems to have been made with lot of vested interested both within the DRDO and the IAF(Post VRS employment in Civil aviation/DGCA with exchequer footing training bill).
The IAF already operates the Boeing B-737NG as the BBJ VIP transport and whereas the Indian Navy also operates the Boeing B-737 as the P-8I variant. Further there already exists an Boeing 737 bases AWACS platform available in the market. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737_AEW%26C)
In the present market scenario, Boeing 737s are freely and cheaply available whereas there is great demand and consequently expense for A320 in all terms such as Crew training, Spares and Planes.
It seems the QR generated aim at reinventing the wheel and wasting of national resources at DRDO and IAF.
It would not be prudent to introduce a new type of aircraft with Unique crew training, Spares, logistics and requirements when, there already exists a type of aircraft operating with both IAF, Indian Navy and Air India Express.
I request you to humbly look in to the matter.