The Indian government on Saturday cleared the DRDO project to build advanced “eyes in the sky” or next-generation AWACS (airborne warning and control systems), which can detect incoming aerial threats like hostile fighters, drones and cruise missiles from 400-km away.
The Manohar Parrikar-led defence acquisitions council (DAC) approved the building of two Awacs, which will involve mounting indigenous 360-degree coverage AESA (active electronically scanned array) radars on Airbus A-330 wide-body jets, at a cost of Rs 5,113 crore.
The eventual plan is to induct eight such aircraft under the “Awacs-India” project since both China and Pakistan are well ahead of India in this critical area in modern-day warfare, Times of India said on Sunday.
“It will take at least 5-7 years to build the first two Awacs . Six more Awacs will be ordered when the project is mid-way,” said a source. The decision, incidentally, comes ahead of PM Narendra Modi’s visit to France and Germany, which primarily house the European Airbus consortium, in early-April.
The DAC also approved the Army’s Rs 1,605 crore acquisition of 30 weapon-locating radars from defence PSU Bharat Electronics and the Rs 710 crore order for 1,512 mine-ploughs for the T-90S main-battle tanks from Bharat Earth Movers Ltd.
But the controversial Ravi Rishi-owned Vectra Group, which acted as the go-between in the supply of all-terrain heavy Tatra trucks to India, was “dropped” from the list of five vendors in contention to supply 220 truck-mounted lifting devices (TMLD) for Rs 24 crore.