India's DRDO Fits Locally-made Airborne Warning System On Embraer Aircraft

India's Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has fitted its own airborne early warning and control system (AEW & CS) on a modified Embraer ERJ 145 aircraft slated to be inducted into the Indian Air Force in two months.

The AEW & CS is basically‘sharp-seeing and listening’ radar that can look out deep across enemy territory for any incoming threat without itself crossing over.

The aircraft has undergone the requisite operational trials, and is ready for induction in November or later, an official was quoted as saying by The Hindu Friday.

The second aircraft is going through the initial trials and is likely to join the first one around mid-2017 at the Bhisiana Air Force Station in Bathinda, Punjab, near to the northern borders.

The DRDO’s Bengaluru-based Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) is the nodal agency for the design, integration and testing of the Indian early warning systems on the Embraer.

Early this month the DRDO sought details of the purchase of the two aircraft after US launched a probe in recent months into suspected payments in the Brazilian deal.

Work on the twin Rs. 2,000-crore (US$300 million) surveillance aircraft project started after the first customized plane reached CABS in July 2012 from Sao Paulo. The Embraer ERJ 145 is twin-engine regional jet produced by a Brazilian aerospace firm Embraer.