Airborne Early Warning Systems - A-50EI Phalcon, DRDO Netra AEW&C, DRDO AWACS

randomradio said:
Okay, on further checks, this looks like LRDE's design, which lost to CABS. So this L-STAR is not what went on Netra, it's a TD. CABS designed their own radar.

It lost 'cause it was too heavy for the Embraer jet.

LRDE continued the development of the L-STAR and they now have an S band radar with GaN.

It's unclear if LRDE and CABS will compete again. They likely will 'cause CABS also designed the radar for A330. Or CABS could get Mk1A and LRDE could get Mk2, 'cause it's supposed to be more advanced and will use a platform that can handle a heavier radar.

So now I'm expecting Mk1 and 1A to have L band, and Mk2 to have S and X band.
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randomradio said:
Here's something interesting.

A very, very official parliament report.


View attachment 44259

Netra seems to have been sanctioned under Vajpayee and L-STAR was called "L-Band."

So it's likely that CABS was cleared to develop this project. We can see AEWC&S was cleared at the same time as well. And then LRDE jumped into the program with their own L-STAR, where L is "Long range." This is something DRDO labs have a habit of doing.
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The L-band seems like it may have been an old proposal that was dropped early on. @Arpit did some digging and found this:

netra 2.jpg

^^ That poster is from CABS itself.

Even if there were competing designs for the AAAU array, it's unlikely to have been in different bands. They decide on things like frequency pretty early.
 
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Parthu said:
The L-band seems like it may have been an old proposal that was dropped early on. @Arpit did some digging and found this:

View attachment 44288

^^ That poster is from CABS itself.

Even if there were competing designs for the AAAU array, it's unlikely to have been in different bands. They decide on things like frequency pretty early.
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I would like to add that even in their own newsletter, DRDO mentioned that the primary radar was developed by LRDE, while CABS holds the IPR for the AAAU.

The AAAU is a complete packaged unit of the radar, along with associated components, that is mounted on top of the Embrer aircraft.
IMG_8710.jpeg

Furthermore, the airworthiness certificate available from CEMILAC clearly mentions that the RF units in the primary radar operate in the S-band manufactured by AMPL. It also clearly states that LRDE developed the primary radar—there were not two separate radars. LRDE was responsible for the primary radar, while CABS developed the AAAU.


IMG_8711.jpeg
 
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Parthu said:
The L-band seems like it may have been an old proposal that was dropped early on. @Arpit did some digging and found this:

View attachment 44288

^^ That poster is from CABS itself.

Even if there were competing designs for the AAAU array, it's unlikely to have been in different bands. They decide on things like frequency pretty early.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've seen that. But we can't tell LRDE's program apart from CABS'.

Furthermore, the L-STAR mentioned in the parliament report was from 2014, when Netra was in its final stage.
 
Arpit said:
I would like to add that even in their own newsletter, DRDO mentioned that the primary radar was developed by LRDE, while CABS holds the IPR for the AAAU.

The AAAU is a complete packaged unit of the radar, along with associated components, that is mounted on top of the Embrer aircraft.
View attachment 44290

Furthermore, the airworthiness certificate available from CEMILAC clearly mentions that the RF units in the primary radar operate in the S-band manufactured by AMPL. It also clearly states that LRDE developed the primary radar—there were not two separate radars. LRDE was responsible for the primary radar, while CABS developed the AAAU.


View attachment 44291
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Incorrect. AAAU refers to subarrays or the main array in the primary radar, ie, the frontend.

Active Antenna Array Unit (AAAU) | Defence Research and Development Organisation - DRDO, Ministry of Defence, Government of India

The Active Antenna Array Unit (AAAU) is a combined antenna system for Radar and IFF systems of AEW&C. The antenna unit provides fully Active Electronic Scanning Array (AESA) for radar and passive electronic scanning antenna for IFF. The array has in built controller unit with multiple units to...
www.drdo.gov.in www.drdo.gov.in
The Active Antenna Array Unit (AAAU) is a combined antenna system for Radar and IFF systems of AEW&C. The antenna unit provides fully Active Electronic Scanning Array (AESA) for radar and passive electronic scanning antenna for IFF. The array has in built controller unit with multiple units to provide beam steering of the radar and IFF antennas. It supports multiple interfaces.

Here's an example.
swarajyamag.com

Explained: The Indian Navy' New Game-Changing Radar

The Astra AAAU provides a boost to the Indian's Navy's detecting, locating, and tracking capabilities. Over and above this, its development marks a major step for India being 'atmanirbhar' in defence.
swarajyamag.com

When you combine the AAAU to its cooling and processing system, ie, the backend, it becomes a radar.

When it says LRDE contributed to the primary radar, the CABS radar uses LRDE's processor, so the backend came from LRDE while the frontend, ie, AAAU, came from CABS. This AAAU is different from the LRDE developed AAAU. Your article mentions that, it says almost the entire radar and its networking system was developed by CABS.

Anyway CEMILAC is the certification authority for anything military that's meant to fly, so everybody needs to get their stuff certified to even flight test it. This has no bearing on the discussion.
 
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FalconSlayers said:
I know what it means, I just don't know whether IAF has plans to acquire them as haven't heard about the SIGINT aircraft project like the way ISTAR is discussed. Does the IAF have any plans for dedicated EW aircrafts as well?
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This obsession with "dedicated EW aircraft" just because some Pakistanis had a few from the 80s have to stop. It is up to the IAF to decide if that is necessary. If it were, they would have gone forward with procurement. We are not behind "EW" we just dont see a need for separate aircraft as of now. We dont have enough information about ORBAT to answer why. Everything cant be public information.
 
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darshan978 said:
windows and nvidia GPU?
for military? are you *censored*ing kidding me?

If you have windows software developed,
then please develope linux based system and use wine,
use everything but windows.
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What alternative to Nvidia GPU is there? AMD? Also American. We don't have our own GPU. BTW Nvidia GPUs use more advanced tech than the chips which go into nuclear missiles and SAMs lol. Like it's a difference of generations. The most advanced chip in F35 is nowhere near the sophistication of the latest Nvidia GPU chips which a layman like me can buy.
 
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