The Indian Air Force on Tuesday received the first of the three indigenously developed Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&C) 'Netra' at the Aero India show here in the presence Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has designed and developed the warning system, which is mounted on the Brazilian Embraer-145 modified jet. AWE&C are capable of tracking multiple aerial targets over 200 km range.
S. Christopher, Chairman, DRDO, and Secretary Department of Defence R&D, and G. Satheesh Reddy, Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, were present on the occasion.
In addition, India is to build six more next-generation Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS), with 300-km range, on the Airbus platform for an estimated Rs 20,000 crore ($3 billion).
The IAF is already using the Israeli Phalcon AWACS on the Russian IL-76 heavy-lift aircraft to detect aerial threats from jets or missiles even from targets 400 km away.
--IANS
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