Flying Blind

Atul Chandra

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has made no progress in its efforts to induct greater numbers of specialised aircraft ranging from the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) and the smaller Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms in over a decade.

Currently, the focus of the air force appears to be the procurement of additional mid-air refuellers and fighter aircraft. This has left it reliant on its fleet of three A-50I Phalcon AWACS aircraft and two Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) developed AEW&C Netra aircraft.

With a live eastern border and a need to constantly monitor air and ground activity in the area, the IAF is short of the airborne early warning and ISR assets needed for the task. Alive to the threat of Chinese expansionism, even the United States Air Force (USAF) has been working to revamp its ISR operations in recent years, though it is focussing on development of new capabilities such as space-based ISR and next-generation platforms capable of multiple roles and penetrating contested airspace. But older legacy ISR platforms will still have a major role to play in any future battle.

The Pakistan Air Force is known to operate a fleet of at least eight-10 airborne early warning aircraft comprising the Saab Erieye AEW&Cs and Chinese ZDK03 Karakoram Eagle AWACS. China, which is in the midst of a dramatic military build-up of its capabilities, is thought to possess over 20 AEW&C/AWACS platforms and also relies on high-end medium altitude long endurance (MALE) and high altitude long endurance (HALE) drones for persistent ISR capability.

Capability on pause

Despite the importance of ISR and airborne early warning platforms, the IAF is short in this arena. With a focus on homegrown platforms at the moment, the air force has no recourse but to wait for an indigenous alternative to be developed. But the challenge here is a continued series of policy flipflops that have resulted in further delay in development of an indigenous airborne early warning platform.

The DRDO began its journey to develop a modern AEW asset for the IAF in the mid-2000s. This resulted in the DRDO and the IAF coming together to undertake an ambitious project for the development of an AEW&C aircraft in 2004. The Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) in Bengaluru was tasked with the development of India’s first indigenously developed AEW&C platform and Embraer was selected to provide three EMB-145 business jets in 2008. Embraer has earlier delivered four of its Legacy 600 business jets to the IAF for VIP transportation and one Legacy 600 to the Border Security Force (BSF) in 2005.

The Brazilian airframer delivered the first two EMB-145s in 201