New Delhi — India is making substantial headway in its indigenous development of nine Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) and the first one will be ready for flight-tests by the end of 2011. Besides, the state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has also revealed that it is developing two Aerostats for additional surveillance and communications.
The premier state-owned defence firm DRDO has involved five of its laboratories including the Centre for Airborne Systems, Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE), Defence Electronics Research Laboratory (DERL), Defence Electronics Application Laboratory and Electronics and Radar Development Establishment to be a part of the homegrown AWACS project. The AWACS will be 85 per cent indigenous, sources said.
The homegrown AWACS will augment the capabilities of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in terms of air defence, surveillance and network-centric operations. The DRDO indicated that three of the systems would be integrated on board the Brazilian Embraer EMB 145 jet and delivered by 2014.
