Indian Air Force ISTAR Aircraft Development : Updates

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LIVEFIST: India to Acquire Raytheon Sentinel ISTAR Aircraft

After India’s quest to acquire two Raytheon ISTAR advanced airborne battlefield and ground surveillance aircraft collapsed in 2017 over a preposterous — but not uncommon — turf war between the Indian Air Force and DRDO over testing and evaluation of the platform, things appear to be finally on track. Livefist has learnt that the ISTAR program has been resurrected under the auspices of the US-India defence technology & trade initiative (DTTI) and will see the Pentagon supply India with one ISTAR aircraft, while pooling technological resources for a joint effort with the DRDO to create indigenous sensor systems for an additional four aircraft.

In other words, India’s ISTAR acquisition plan has expanded from two aircraft off the shelf previously, to a total of five aircraft now, the last four of which will be integrated with Indian-developed intelligence sensors, avionics and network achitecture. The entire program is likely to cost over $3 billion.

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Raytheon Sentinel of the RAF

Raytheon’s ISTAR platform, called Sentinel, is based on the long-range Bombardier Global Express jet, is in service with the Royal Air Force. The ISTAR capability has been seen for nearly a decade as crucial to India’s airborne networked surveillance, real time battle intelligence and target acquisition needs, a possible game-changer in an increasingly troubled neighbourhood.

U.S. Embassy sources confirmed that talks were on to freeze modalities of the actual transfer of the first aircraft. Livefist can also confirm that work has begun at the DRDO’s Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) in Bengaluru on developing the sensors, software, communication equipment and code for the indigenous component of the program, with teams from the U.S. and India to exchange information under the DTTI to take things forward. This is likely to take a few years, given the complexity and sensitivity of the technology involved.

It is not clear if the DRDO and Indian Air Force have worked out their turf battle on testing and evaluation of the ISTAR, though it appears that both have laid down the contours of how it will work going forward. The significance of the requirement is understood to have been a compelling factor in the DRDO and IAF apparently setting aside their differences to make things move.

Apart from airborne intelligence aircraft operated by India’s Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), the Indian Air Force currently operates three Phalcon AWACS (with two more to be contracted) and a single DRDO-Embraer Netra AEW&C jet (a second jet joins service soon). The DRDO is also developing an AWACS system based on the Airbus A330 widebody jet platform, which, as Livefist reported here last year, the IAF wants to double as a mid-air tanker. At the ongoing Aero India show, Boeing reminded the IAF that the Wedgetail AEW&C was still on offer to it. In 2017, the IAF revived a quest for seven SIGINT/COMINT aircraft that will be administered by India’s intelligence agencies.

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A Bombardier Global 5000, specially outfitted with Electronic reconnaissance equipment. Two of these (4X-COH and 4X-COF) are operated by the Aviation Research Centre (ARC), the air-wing of R&AW, India's external intelligence agency

With the Netra AEW&C program now officially closed, the DRDO has focused its experience and energies on the Multimission Maritime Aircraft (MMMA) for the Indian Coast Guard, a project revealed first here on Livefist. That program is inadvertently stuck, since it is based on the Airbus C295 platform. And until the Indian government takes a decision on the Airbus-Tata proposal to build 56 C295s in India to replace its old British Avro transport planes, the MMMA program has no choice but to complete its sensor hardware and await clarity on the aircraft platform. The DRDO foresees churning out at least 17 C295-based MMMAs.

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Possible CABS-designed configuration for the C295-based Maritime Multimission Aircraft. Pic credit: TRISHUL (Aero India 2019)

U.S. firm Raytheon, which leads the ISTAR/Sentinel program has flown well under the radar for the last few years after a high profile start in the Indian market. Emerging one of India’s first American suppliers of military equipment in after the 1999 Kargil War (which itself came a year after the U.S. imposed sanctions following India’s nuclear tests), Raytheon began by supplying India with AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder weapon and artillery locating radars. It followed this with high profile campaigns for the Javelin anti-tank weapon and Patriot anti-missile system with partner Lockheed-Martin, neither of which ended in a contract. In 2013, Raytheon’s AIM-9X Sidewinder lost out to the MBDA ASRAAM to arm the IAF’s Jaguars. Raytheon-built military equipment will enter Indian service this year in the form of U.S. Army reserve AIM-92 Stinger air-to-air missiles on the IAF’s AH-64E Apache attack helicopters. The revived ISTAR program could mark Raytheon’s big play in the Indian security market.

NEWSBREAK: Turbulence Ends, India Set To Acquire U.S. ISTAR Jet, 4 More With Indian Sensors - Livefist

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The ISTAR is a sorely needed capability. Hope it comes through.
India-specific ISTAR aircraft for the Air Force will be equipped with active electronically scanned array radar that can scan more than a 30,000-kilometer area in a minute, and analyze data and identify the target in 10 to 15 minutes.
 
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India-specific ISTAR aircraft for the Air Force will be equipped with active electronically scanned array radar that can scan more than a 30,000-kilometer area in a minute, and analyze data and identify the target in 10 to 15 minutes.

30,000 km? :LOL:

how far it stands if we compare with Israeli AWACS?

This is not an AWACS/AEW plane. The purpose of an AEW is for the most part to generate a situation picture of the airspace out to a long range, and assisting the Air Force in securing and managing that airspace with their L/S-band long-wavelength radars. The DRDO-made Netra AEW radar can scan targets at over 475 km in extended range mode. Logical to assume the Phalcon can see farther.

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^^ That is what a typical AEW situation picture looks like, not that different from an Air Traffic Control (ATC) screen, with data such as position vectors, aircraft identification, speed of targets etc. being constantly monitored -

Air-Traffic-Controller.jpg


The purpose of an ISTAR aircraft such as the Sentinel, on the other hand, is mostly collecting ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) of ground targets, movement of troops or locations & elevation models of stationary buildings or natural formations like mountains etc. ISTAR planes (including the Sentinel and ARC's Global 5000s) are generally equipped with Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR), and the data they collect is of a different nature -

sar-3.jpg


This is not to say AEWs cannot look at ground targets or that ISTAR planes cannot scan the sky, but to say that its not their intended role.
 
30,000 km? :LOL:



This is not an AWACS/AEW plane. The purpose of an AEW is for the most part to generate a situation picture of the airspace out to a long range, and assisting the Air Force in securing and managing that airspace with their L/S-band long-wavelength radars. The DRDO-made Netra AEW radar can scan targets at over 475 km in extended range mode. Logical to assume the Phalcon can see farther.

View attachment 4517

^^ That is what a typical AEW situation picture looks like, not that different from an Air Traffic Control (ATC) screen, with data such as position vectors, aircraft identification, speed of targets etc. being constantly monitored -

View attachment 4516

The purpose of an ISTAR aircraft such as the Sentinel, on the other hand, is mostly collecting ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) of ground targets, movement of troops or locations & elevation models of stationary buildings or natural formations like mountains etc. ISTAR planes (including the Sentinel and ARC's Global 5000s) are generally equipped with Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR), and the data they collect is of a different nature -

View attachment 4519

This is not to say AEWs cannot look at ground targets or that ISTAR planes cannot scan the sky, but to say that its not their intended role.
30000 square km ....... example an area of 150*200 km
 
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How are you these any different in capabilities from a traditional AWAC system?
Unlike AWACS they carry SAR for ground mapping. and they also carry SIGNET COMINT and other equipment for intelligence gathering. They are basically spy planes who look for things on ground like enemy formation , movement of military convoys and build-up... unlike AWACS whose role is providing situation awareness in air domain.