Indian plan to bolster Air defence surveillance network, IAF will commission a spanking new Israeli medium-power radar (MPR) at Naliya in Gujarat this week.
"This state-of-the-art radar, to be named Arudhra, is being inducted towards strengthening the air defence in the Saurashtra-Kutch region and constitutes an important component in IAF's plan to achieve network-centric operations," said an officer.
IAF chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik will be inducting the radar, which has a range of over 300 km, at the Naliya airbase on Friday after the commanders' conference of the South-Western Air Command.
AF has already inked contracts for 19 LLTRs (low-level transportable radars), four MPRs and 30 indigenous medium-range Rohini radars, apart from also planning a major induction of long-range surveillance radars (LRSRs) and high-power radars (HPRs) to bolster air defence coverage in "hilly terrain" in the hinterland as well as along the borders with China and Pakistan.
India is also moving towards procuring nine more Aerostat radars to add to the two EL/M-2083 Israeli Aerostats inducted earlier as well as two additional AWACS (airborne warning and control systems) to supplement the first three Israeli Phalcon AWACS bought under a $1.1-billion deal.
The overall aim of all this is to ensure that the Indian airspace, which still has several gaping holes, especially over central and peninsular India, becomes impregnable against hostile aircraft, drones and helicopters.
With advanced "electronic counter-counter measures", the new radars being inducted will be integrated into the IACCS (integrated air command and control system), the fully-automated network being established to integrate the wide array of military radars with each other as well as with civilian radars.
IAF, in fact, has plans to establish 10 IACCS nodes to cover virtually the entire country, with quick transfer of data from different radars as well as ground stations of AWACS to one central place.