The Hindu : National : Indigenous airborne systems by 2008

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 16, 2005

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National

Indigenous airborne systems by 2008

Special Correspondent

Being done with multiple partnership

CHENNAI: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) hopes to fly the air force-identified aircraft carrying the indigenously developed Airborne-Early Warning and Control (AEW and C) system by 2008-end, Director of the Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS), DRDO, Bangalore, K. Tamilmani said here on Thursday.

"We are going to buy a new aircraft" for putting the system on it after evaluating various aircraft available with countries such as America, France, Brazil and Russia, Mr. Tamilmani, who was here to deliver a lecture on "AWACS as a force multiplier: India's strategic option", told The Hindu here. The development of the system, which would have a range of 200 km, would be assessed when the aircraft is flown. It may be possible to compute all the assessments by 2010 and deliver the system, Mr. Tamilmani explained. The technology base for the development of the equipment had already been established in the past. The organisation was in the process of indigenously developing the airborne system, the Director of the country's prestigious Rs.1,800-crore project said. The programme is being carried out with multiple partnership with industry and educational institutions.

Delivering the lecture under the auspices of the Madras University's Department of Defence and Strategic Studies (DD and SS) and the Society for Indian Ocean studies-Chennai Chapter, Mr. Tamilmani said that the Government was committed to indigenous development of airborne systems and such efforts were being given a big boost. The AEW and C will remain a force in the race for achieving air superiority as its advantages included enabling flexibility in battle management. If the country wished it could even become a global player in the technology. Indigenous design and development capabilities were the keys to gain competitive edge. The modes of achieving superiority were through indigenous capability, external support and co-development. For developing indigenous capability, the country had a fairly good research and development base and scientific and trained manpower. Resources were also being made available.

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