Later this month, the Indian Air Force (IAF) will demonstrate the use of locally-developed Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars, making India one of the few countries with a local power multiplier at the core of electronic warfare, long-range missiles and long-range missiles. Precision guided munitions.

D Seshagiri, the project director of the Electronics and Radar Development Agency (LRDE), confirmed this and stated that 95% of the AESA radar developed is domestically produced, with only one imported subsystem. It has the ability to track 50 targets in the sky over a range of more than 100 kilometers and engage four of them at the same time. In the next five years, all 83 IAF Tejas Mark IA fighter jets will be equipped with this radar, and the future dual-engine AMCA fighter jet developed by the Aviation Development Agency (ADA).

According to Seshagiri, the AESA radar will be installed on the radar cone of the Su-30 MKI aircraft and the MiG-29 K fighter aircraft carried by the Indian military. “LRDE has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hindustan Aerospace Co., Ltd. as the main integrator of Tejas Mk I A radar. Four suppliers, including BEL, are suppliers of key subsystems.”

HT understands that the first batch of 16 Tejas MK 1A aircraft will be equipped with Israeli ELM 2052 AESA radars, and the rest will be equipped with local Uttam AESA radars. “The radar has been tested for more than 250 hours on two Tejas fighter jets and Hawker Siddeley 800 business jets. The radar will finally be demonstrated in a flight this month, and its force multiplier is ready for production. Only the United States, The European Union, Israel and China have AESA radar capabilities,” Seshagiri said.

The National Flight Test Center under the charge of the Indian Air Force has given the green light to the radar after successful performance tests. Earlier, India used primary radars on its fighter jets and local airborne early warning and control system aircraft. If Indian fighters install AESA radars on their interceptor fighters, the Pakistan Air Force’s retaliation for the Balakot airstrike in February 2019 will be costly to Islamabad.

The AESA radar is also the key to the Astra air-to-air missile developed by DRDO. The missile has a range of more than 120 kilometers and can launch guided munitions at long distances. This radar will offset China’s air superiority gained through the J20 multi-role fighter, because the AESA radar developed by India works well compared to the radar developed by Beijing.

News source : Hindustan times