Later this month, the Indian Air Force (IAF) will demonstrate the use of an indigenously developed active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, making India one of the few countries to have an indigenous force-multiplier that lies at the heart of electronic warfare, long-range missiles, and long-distance, precision-guided ammunition.
Project director D Seshagiri of Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) confirmed this and said that the developed AESA radar is 95% indigenous, with only one imported subsystem. It has the capacity to track 50 targets in the sky at a range in excess of 100km and engage four of them simultaneously.
In the next five years, all 83 of IAF’s Tejas Mark I A fighters will have this radar, as will the future twin-engine AMCA fighter developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA).
The AESA radar will be mounted on the radar cone of Su-30 MKI aircraft as well as carrier-based MiG-29 K fighters of the Indian military, according to Seshagiri. “Already, the LRDE has signed an MoU with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for being the lead integrator of the radar on the Tejas Mk I A with four identified vendors including BEL being the suppliers of key sub-systems.”