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India Developing its Own Electronic Warfare System

ST Team
Thursday, December 9, 2010
ST Team
India is developing its own radar-based Electronic Warfare System (EWS) with two test ranges in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to equip its armed forces for modern wars. “An indigenously developed radar-based EWS will be ready by 2013, with test ranges at Chitradurga in Karnataka and at Tandur near Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh,” said Prahlada, Chief Controller of the State-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Cost of each test range is estimated to be about 200 crore. Prahlada said the radar-based sophisticated communication system would use electromagnetic spectrum for attack, protection and warfare support to destroy the combat capabilities of an enemy. “The prowess of electronic warfare system was amply demonstrated by the U.S. armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. A prototype EWS has been integrated with MiG-27 fighter for test flights,” Prahlada said at the first India National Electrotnic Warfare workshop, organized by the India chapter of Association of Old Crows (AOC), based at Virginia in the U.S.

The Chitradurga aeronautical test range for communication-based EWS will be completed in 2012 at the DRDO’s 4,000-acre campus which is about 200 km from Bangalore, while the Tandur range will be used for non-communication EWS. Currently, EW Systems are being tested in the IAF range at Gwalior in Central India.

“Our goal is to develop the fourth-generation EWS by 2012 because without electronic warfare, you cannot win a war. Once you have it (EW capability), you have to test it, you can’t wait for a war to test it,” he added. The fourth-generation EWS is being developed by the state-run Defense Avionics Research Establishment (DARE) and Defense Electronics Research Laboratory (DERL). The naval and army versions of EWS will be developed simultaneously after the air version gets integrated and becomes operational.
The defense scientist said the country’s defense research and development (R&D) establishments are able to meet about 50 percent of defense requirements indigenously and will scale this up to 70 percent by 2020.
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