News: The Army began procuring advanced air-defence radars to plug border gaps, four months after Operation Sindoor, when hundreds of Pakistani UAVs breached Indian airspace.
About Air Defence RADARS
- Radar is the acronym for Radio Detection And Ranging.
- It is a specialized electronic system that uses radio waves to determine the direction, distance (using time delay), and velocity (through Doppler Shift) of target objects.
- Uses: Radars are used by the military to search, detect, identify, and help destroy aerial threats.
- Components:
- Transmitter: Sends out radio signals.
- Receiver: Collects reflected signals from targets.
- Types of radars:
- Surveillance radars: These systems continuously surveil the skies to detect aerial objects, whose detections are analysed by an operator, increasingly with computer assistance, for identification.
- Fire control radars: These systems provide targeting support to surface-to-air guns or missiles so that identified aerial threats can be engaged effectively.
- Radar Cross-Sections (RCS): It is a measure of how detectable an object is by radar, usually represented in sq. m.
- The larger the RCS, greater the detectability.
- The RCS is not only the function of the size of an aerial object but also its specific design features: the basic thrust of modern stealth technology is to reduce an aircraft’s RCS.
Indian Defence Forces’ Radar Capabilities
- Both the army and the Indian Air Force have both surveillance and fire control radars, including Low Level Light Weight Radars (LLLRs) for low-altitude.
- Indian Army primarily uses Flycatchers (indigenously upgraded Super Fledermaus/USFM) and the AD tactical control radar for fire control.
- The IAF controls most high- and medium-power radars with ranges of up to several hundred kilometres for higher-altitude tracking of larger threats such as fighter jets, transport aircraft, and AWACS.
- IAF employs fire control radars including the 3D central acquisition radar and the Rajendra radar.
- India’s Air Defence Infrastructure
- Missile systems: India has the Russian S-400 system and the indigenous Akash missile system.
- Army’s Akashteer system: It integrates radars, sensors, air defence guns, and communications to generate a real-time operational air picture.
- IAF’s IACCS (Integrated Air Command and Control System): It unifies data from multiple assets to enable coordinated detection and interception.
- Mission Sudarshan Chakra: It is an ongoing modernisation programme; DRDO has recently tested the Integrated Air Defence Weapon System.
