Aviacion

15/04/2008
India will buy three more AWACS

India prepares to receive the first of its Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) IL-76TD Phalcon, and the Indian Air Force has the intention to acquire three more such platforms.
With this, IAF now proposes to field six such platforms with delivery expected to be completed between 2009-2012.
These AWACS will bolster India`s air-surveillance capability multi-fold giving it an eye-in-the-air to detect enemy planes and missiles while in flight far away.
India will get the delivery of first of its three Phalcons AWACS in September this year and the follow-on platforms in April 2009 and August 2010.
The first of the Phalcon AWACS powered by 4PS-90A-76 engines is currently being fitted out with mission sensors and management suites and will be ready for roll out by end of next month for flight certification, a top Israeli Aircraft Industry (IAI) official said.
India was to receive deliveries of the first of these aircraft in December 2007, but the transfer was delayed due to time over-runs in customising the airframes by Uzbekistan’s Tashkent Aircraft Production Organisation (TAPO).
India had signed the USD 1.5 billion contract in November 2003 with Russia`s Rosoboronexport Corporation and Israel`s IAI for purchase of three AWACS.