Indian air force gets Awacs plane

India has officially taken delivery of an Awacs early-warning surveillance aircraft, part of a $1bn (£600m) defence deal with Israel. The plane, Russian-made but packed with Israeli radar, is expected to reinforce India's maritime security following the attacks on Mumbai last year.

BBC

The deal may have been done in 2004 but surely this can only be a positive step towards making their country more secure given the problems just over the border in Pakistan and the recent suicide attacks in Mumbai? just how good are these aircraft in comparison to the US Awacs though?

Russian mechanics and American tech, should be comparable to US Awacs

Originally posted by solidshot
just how good are these aircraft in comparison to the US Awacs though?

How old are the systems in the current US AWACs.


Quite concievable that these have considerably more processing power on board, and hence better able to sort the wheat from the chaff.

kilcoo from what I recall the systems on board the E-3s at this point where put in place during a major overhaul in the early 00's. After that they held off on more major work as they where trying to get it more modern AWACs by installing them on the KC-10s. That was canned in 2007 and now everything seems to be on hold as they wait to see the new tanker results and are considering installing the newest systems in the winner.

From my research I'm seeing 6 orders. the plane seen in the article is the first to reach the IAF for familiarization and training. From everything I'm seeing the IAF does not have the aircraft numbers to be used operationally yet. When they do have the numbers I'm sure they will use it quite effectively.

[edit on 28-5-2009 by Canada_EH]

Israeli tech

The first of the three Indian Air Force AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) platforms landed on India soil escorted by the venerable Mig-29 and Jaguar fighters at the IAF’s Jamnagar airbase, today at 1135 hrs (IST).

A special ‘Induction ceremony’ awaits the AWACS in the National Capital where Defence Minister Shri AK Antony will dedicate this force-multiplier to the Nation on Thursday, May 28.

The news of the landing of the aircraft was conveyed to Shri AK Antony by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal FH Major within an hour of the former resuming the office as the Defence Minister for a second successive term.

The AWACS is a tripartite venture amongst India, Russia and Israel. The Indian Air Force laid down the operational requirements in detail based on which the Israeli ‘Phalcon’ radar was mounted on the Russian IL-76 aircraft equipped with the more powerful PS-90A engines making it more advanced than many such systems.

This is the first of a total of three AWACS that the IAF is slated to receive. The remaining two are expected to be inducted into the IAF by 2010 and all the AWACS would be based at Agra. India is one of the few countries to have inducted the AWACS in their Air Forces.

(Source: Press Information Bureau India; issued May 25, 2009)

Originally posted by BackOpS999
Russian mechanics and American tech, should be comparable to US Awacs

If they are working in partnership with Russia on this project though does this mean that Israel is giving them access to the US electronic technology as well? (assuming the electronic suite is developed from the US systems?)

Originally posted by BackOpS999
Russian mechanics and American tech, should be comparable to US Awacs

The AWACS is a tripartite venture amongst India, Russia and Israel. The Indian Air Force laid down the operational requirements in detail based on which the Israeli ‘Phalcon’ radar was mounted on the Russian IL-76 aircraft equipped with the more powerful PS-90A engines making it more advanced than many such systems.
India, Russia and Israel

reply to post by kilcoo316


The E-3's have been on the recieving end of multiple upgrades over the years

The last of which was completed in 2006

The Radar System Improvement Program (RSIP) was a joint U.S./NATO development program.[1] RSIP enhances the operational capability of the E-3 radar electronic counter-measures, and dramatically improve the system's reliability, maintainability and availability.[1] Essentially, the program replaced the old TTL and MECL logic that was no longer available, with off-the-shelf computers. These computers being programmed in a high-level language instead of assembler. The real improvement comes from replacing the old 8-bit FFT with a 24-bit FFT, and the 12-bit A/D (Sign + 12-bits) with a 15-bit A/D (Sign + 15-bits). [7] These hardware and software modifications improve radar performance, and provide enhanced detection with an emphasis toward low radar cross section (RCS) targets.[1]

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Canada_EH


Yes, well I believe this one will be operationalised by the onset of winter, and there on will probably spend its time mostly touring various regional commands to provide hands on training to the various OCU crews that will eventually operate all 3 platforms by end of next year. I understand that the first 3 will be divided across operational command regions based on threat assessment : Pak & China while the remaining 3 will probably come in after that for other potential sensitive areas: Sri Lanka (?).