AWACS will change Asia's military dynamics

[Rage]

IAF may replace AWACS with 'modern aircraft' in future

28 May 2009, 1139 hrs IST, AGENCIES


India may have created history by inducting its first Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) here today but the IAF is planning to replace the Russian IL-76 aircraft with some other "modern aircraft" as the platform for the system in future.

India is the first country in South Asia to own an AWACS, popularly called 'an eye in the sky'.

"The first three AWACS will be based on the Russian IL-76s but they are older aircraft and they will be replaced with modern aircraft, which have same endurance as the IL-76," an IAF source said.

Officials, however, said the process to look out for new platforms for AWACS will begin only after the remaining two systems are inducted in the IAF. The second of the AWACS is expected to be in India by early 2010 and the last one by the end of next year.

The aircraft being looked as a replacement for the IL-76 include Embraer and Gulfstream 550, which can carry out flying missions of over nine hours at a stretch.

On operations by AWACS, the source said, "all the equipment for the system to work will take another two to three months to arrive. So, it will take three months before they start operational flying."

The aircraft will be deployed in Agra with IAF's 50 Squadron under Allahabad-based Central Air Command but will be assigned tasks directly by the Air Headquarters.


IAF may replace AWACS with 'modern aircraft' in future- TIMESNOW.tv - Latest Breaking News, Big News Stories, News Videos

 

[Rage]

 

[Rage]

Phalcon price hike

Our Special Correspondant

Phalcon: Costlier by the day


New Delhi, May 26: Israel has hiked the price for the Phalcon airborne warning and control centres by a third after the Indian Air Force opened negotiations to order three more systems.

The first of the systems mounted on a Russian Ilyushin-76 landed in Delhi today after a delay of about 18 months, and is set to be formally inducted into the Indian Air Force on Thursday.

Three Phalcon AWACS were contracted by the IAF in 2004 in a tripartite deal involving Russia, which was to supply the aircraft, Israel, which mounted the systems, and India.

The schedule went awry, first, because the delivery of the aircraft to Israel was delayed and then because of problems in integrating the Israeli systems to the Russian platform. The deal was worth $1.1 billion.

The delivery of the remaining two aircraft of the 2004 deal is likely only in 2004.

Air Force sources said the additional three Phalcons being negotiated should be inducted by 2012. But the price negotiations are taking time and even though the follow-on order means that much of the bureaucratic red tape will be bypassed, the signing of the contract is still some weeks away.

Now, the Israelis have hiked their charges and that would take the cost to more than $1.43 billion (Rs 6,800 crore approximately). If the Russians too demand higher costs for the aircraft, the negotiations could take even longer.

The AWACS are designed to function as a super command and control centre in wartime. The induction of the system into the IAF gives a distinct technological advantage to the force over the Pakistani Air Force.

In its belly the aircraft holds 12 workstations that control radar, electronic intelligence and surveillance systems and communication equipment capable of tracking 60 targets simultaneously about 400km inside enemy territory both on the ground and in the air.


The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Nation | Phalcon price hike

 

[indian_blues]

The delivery of the remaining two aircraft of the 2004 deal is likely only in 2004.

typo?....... :s

 

[Rage]

typo?....... :s

I would suppose so. Blame those wretched, bloody journalists

Commander Singha confirms that the delivery of the other two will occur by 2010.

 

[p2prada]

He said the IAF had a robust network, AFNET, which was integrated with the Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) and the Operational Data Link.

The IACCS is an integrated command and control for our entire network of ground based radars. This is achieved by using large networks of fibre-optic cables being placed underground, perhaps across the country. These cables are unjammable and can transfer 500Mb of data per second.

I guess this is being handled by TATA Indicom.

Only last year, the entire radar network for the western command was integrated.

Also AFNET is an integration of all our air assets. Fighters, Maritime recce, AWACS, Aerostats, helis, UAVs with satellites and the IACCS. The IACCS is a small part of the entire AFNET.

This will be complete only in 2012 when all our 7 IRNSS satellites are launched along with our Data link.

By 2012 we will achieve full synergy for our armed forces. Navy, Air force and Army assets will all be integrated to give information on a single screen.

 

[F-14]

guys a bit of topic but do we have an IADS (Integrated Air Defense System)

 

[p2prada]

guys a bit of topic but do we have an IADS (Integrated Air Defense System)

Our IADS is called AFNET, Air Force NETwork.

 

[F-14]

so the WAC ADE (Air Defense Enviorment) is now fully integrated that is good news P2P u made my day
as for the topic i belive that we need More C2I assest something on the lines of the JSTARS so as to seemlessly integrate the total battle space we should also make the common solider part of this C2I system by providing miniture UAV's like the skylark etc what do you guys think ???

 

[p2prada]

so the WAC ADE (Air Defense Enviorment) is now fully integrated that is good news P2P u made my day
as for the topic i belive that we need More C2I assest something on the lines of the JSTARS so as to seemlessly integrate the total battle space we should also make the common solider part of this C2I system by providing miniture UAV's like the skylark etc what do you guys think ???

We are already a step ahead mate.
Indian Army To Acquire Up to 200 Mini-UAVs To Counter Asymmetric Challenges | TwoCircles.net

Also, the AFNET is not C2I, its C4I.

Even battle tanks will be integrated.

Soldier to GHQ integration will only happen between 2014 and 2020. Based on our FINSAS(Future INfantry Soldier As a System) program, not to be confused with our INSAS rifles.. The first few Tech Demonstrator battalions will be ready by 2014.

Last year, India signed a $100million contract with Israel to supply military grade composite materials for the Israeli UAVs and mini-UAVs. There is a possibility we may also be working on the mini-UAVs at home too.

 

[p2prada]

The US have 2 platforms. E-3 for airborne surveillance while the JSTARS for tracking troop movements, armour movements etc.

The new IAF Phalcon combines these 2 into a single platform. The Phalcons will track enemy aircraft, troop movements, conduct ELINT and COMINT functions, and after processing, will provide information to jamming platforms to give the appropriate response.

JSTARS+E-3= Phalcons. Simple as that.

 

[Vinod2070]

Even E3 has the capability to monitor ground armor movement AFAIK. It was used in the GW-1. JSTAR was a new patform then. JSTAR has an exclusive role to monitor ground movements (and also metal content) because of its down and sideways radar.

 

[p2prada]

Even E3 has the capability to monitor ground armor movement AFAIK. It was used in the GW-1. JSTAR was a new patform then. JSTAR has an exclusive role to monitor ground movements (and also metal content) because of its down and sideways radar.

True, but that's where an AESA comes on top. E-3 and JSTARS carry PESA arrays.

The Phalcons can even identify the metal content because of the AESA's very high resolution.

 

[SATISH]

AWACS in the IAF
Prashant Dikshit
Former Deputy Director IPCS
e-mail: [email protected]

The arrival of the AWACS (Air Borne Warning and Control System) is a formidable leap for the Indian Air Force (IAF) in initiating a new structure in the air defence network for India but only a small step towards filling this capability gap. The term generically means an airborne radar system designed to detect aircraft. With the advantage of high altitude, the radars can scan air spaces, over the horizon, hundred of miles away and the returns can be effectively treated to distinguish between friendly and hostile aircraft. Linked with appropriate communication networks, it can direct and control both defensive and offensive air operations. Fighter interceptors can be guided to engage intruding hostile targets and counter-strikes can be launched to neutralize sources. Thematically, it has evolved as a platform for surveillance, command and control and battle management.

The IAF has been clamouring for this system for over three decades spurred with a view to not only augment its surveillance potential but equally essentially, as a force multiplier. The latter construes economies of effort in marshalling resources. During the Cold War and in the era of resource shortages, the Indian government had pursued an indigenous development of the system under the aegis of the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation). This project termed as the ASWAC (Air Borne Surveillance Warning and Control Systems) was eventually halted and abandoned for good when in 1999, the mother AVRO aircraft crashed in the Nilgiri hills of Tamil Nadu with the experimental system on board. The accident was caused by the rotodome shearing off and hitting the tail of the aircraft. The IAF then tested the Russian AE-50 system, a variation of the IL-76 aircraft but did not find it satisfactory for Indian needs.

India’s air defence network can only receive a favourable appraisal, if it can effectively engage and neutralize a hostile intruder well beyond its defined protected air space. It contains a suitably linked chain of ground-based fixed and movable radars that control an equally distributed chain of fighter aircraft and surface-to-air missiles to engage the intruder. Although upgraded over the years, to provide for an appropriate reaction time to cater for threats such as an ingress at ultra-low altitudes, some difficulties in reduced warning periods may still exist in the northern Himalayan region due to difficulties in locating a Radar. Whilst in peacetime, this may be adequate as the national boundaries are the limiting criterion, in the event of hostilities, however, the forward shifting battle zones would also need to be managed. The AWACS would purposefully provide this edge.

The Israeli Phalcon Radar mounted on the Russian IL-76 aircraft equipped with the more powerful PS-90A engines, for the Indian AWACS will easily possess a capacity to react to hostile targets at distances of 500kms from its position in the air. As a formidable constituent of the mother network, operating at 30,000 feet the Radar has the capacity to scan from ground level to 40,000 feet. The higher altitudes are already closely monitored by ground-based systems. The operations are supported by on-board ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) and ECCM (Electronic Counter Counter Measures) systems for electronic warfare. Passive Comint devices record data up to a thousand kilometres. An ECM package is incorporated for-self protection. However, contrary to a view circulating in the media, the AWACS are neither designed nor equipped to deal with the threats from either a small radar signature cruise missile or a high trajectory ICBM/IRBM. The latter would be easily spotted by the ground-based network well before they come to the notice of AWACS. On ballistic missile defences, therefore, India is working separately to meet the challenges.

A crucial aspect is the awareness that it is not a platform to remain perennially in the air, performing the duties of a combat air patrol. With a motley fleet of three by 2010, the systems are only sufficient for contingencies and will need to be judiciously protected and utilized to develop expertise.

This induction should not be construed as an arms race as the development of a similar system has been in progress in China, well before India chose to induct the Phalcon AWACS. In fact, the Israeli manufacturers had initially worked on a Chinese version on a similar Russian platform which was stopped at the behest of the US government. Since then they have worked continuously, in concert with the Russian manufactures to produce as many as ten aircraft. In the case of Pakistan, the primary issue is one of acquisition by India and not of a qualitative change in their threat perception from India.

Articles #2879 , AWACS in the IAF

 

[1.44]

So 6 would mean 4 in flight and 2 in for servicing?I think were gonna need more

 

[p2prada]

So 6 would mean 4 in flight and 2 in for servicing?I think were gonna need more

IAF needs atleast 20-30 AWACS by 2020-25. Israeli and Indian.

I read some where that the Navy may go for 30 long range, medium range and short range recce planes.

 

[1.44]

20 to 30 huh?Can India afford it? I guess they'll most probably be indigenous ones The DRDO is developing?

 

[Yusuf]

What i fail to understand is that if the IAF needed 6 or more of these, then why did they not buy all at one go in the first place? Prices of these dont come down, they always go up.

If the thought was to operate the first batch and evaluate, then why talk about a new batch without the first batch being acquired. Sheer waste of taxpayers money.

 

[F-14]

with the Palchon integrated to the gulf stram jets it can be cheap

 

[LETHALFORCE]

with the Palchon integrated to the gulf stram jets it can be cheap

Israeli/USA would not allow it