The Airborne Early Warning and Control Systems, commonly known as AWACS -- the Phalcon Israeli radar system -- has been formally inducted into the Indian air force on Thursday. The move represents a quantum jump for the Indian air power and allows India to look deep inside Pakistan and China.
The system can simultaneously track nearly 250 flying objects within a radius of 800 km and also has a 'look-down' capability. India is one of the few countries that has this facility.
But now, the IAF is planning to replace the Russian IL-76 aircraft with some other "modern aircraft" as the platform for the system in future.
India is the first country in South Asia to own an AWACS, popularly called 'an eye in the sky'.
"The first three AWACS will be based on the Russian IL-76s but they are older aircraft and they will be replaced with modern aircraft, which have same endurance as the IL-76," an IAF source said.
Officials, however, said the process to look out for new platforms for AWACS will begin only after the remaining two systems are inducted in the IAF. The second of the AWACS is expected to be in India by early 2010 and the last one by the end of next year.
The aircraft being looked as a replacement for the IL-76 include Embraer and Gulfstream 550, which can carry out flying missions of over nine hours at a stretch.
On operations by AWACS, the source said, "all the equipment for the system to work will take another two to three months to arrive. So, it will take three months before they start operational flying."
The aircraft will be deployed in Agra with IAF's 50 Squadron under Allahabad-based Central Air Command but will be assigned tasks directly by the Air Headquarters.
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