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Indian Navy To Buy Balloon Radars

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In order to dissuade future coastal security lapses, the Indian Navy is all set to acquire its first set of balloon-mounted air defence radars from Israel. The increased threat perception from the coastline of India prompted the Indian Government to fast-track the acquisition which has been on India’s list.

India will soon sign a contract with Israel for the acquisition of two EL/M-2083 Aerostat radars. The EL/M-2083 is an aerostat-mounted air search radar which can detect better than ground-based radars. It is an early warning and control phased array radar designed to detect hostile approaching aircraft from long ranges, especially when they approach at low altitudes. Data gathered by the radar is transmitted to a central air defense command & control center where it is used to maintain an extended comprehensive air situation picture. Once a potential threat has been detected the onboard system alerts responders in a timely manner.

The Indian Navy will be operating the new Aerostat radars, which will be mounted on a hot-air ballon tethered to the ground, with a detection range of 500 kilometres for the first time.

In the past, India had projected the need for 13 with each one capable of providing three-dimensional low-altitude coverage equal to 30-40 ground-based radars. There has been successful deployment of the two EL/M-2083 Aerostat radars inducted from Israel in 2004-2005, along the border in Kutch region and Punjab. One of the Aerostat radars was also over to South India where the LTTE carried air strikes in 2007.

IAF’s shopping list from Israel includes LLTRs (Low-Level Transportable Radars), LLLWRs (Low-Level Light Weight Radars), CARs (Central Acquisition Radars) and SARs (Synthetic Aperture Radars) over the next five years to improve its air defence capabilities.

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