India is accelerating efforts to develop and deploy advanced indigenous airborne early-warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, also known as "eyes in the sky," to enhance surveillance and detection capabilities along the China and Pakistan borders. These aircraft will also aid in directing friendly fighters during air combat engagements with enemy jets.
The DRDO-IAF collaboration is actively advancing programs to develop six Mark-1A and six Mark-2 versions of the Netra AEW&C aircraft. Three of these aircraft were previously built and inducted starting from February 2017.
Sources indicate that the Ministry of Defence will consider the acceptance of necessity (AoN) for the six Mark-1A aircraft next week. These aircraft will be equipped with active electronically scanned array antenna-based radars, electronic and signal intelligence systems, and will be mounted on Brazilian Embraer jets at an estimated cost of around £900 million.
“These six AEW&C aircraft will be like the first three Embraer-145 jet-based Netra, which have 240-degree radar coverage. But there will be better software and more advanced technologies like new gallium nitride-based TR (transmit/receive) modules for the radars,” a source said. Developmental work on the six Mark-2 aircraft is progressing rapidly. These aircraft will feature larger and more advanced versions of the AEW&C radars and sensors. They are set to be mounted on second-hand Airbus-321 planes purchased from Air India. The project is already in an advanced stage, with an estimated cost of Rs 10,990 crore.
