Is Avro AWACS Project is Back?

Source : RAUNAK KUNDE / NEWS BEAT / IDRW.ORG.

DRDO AWACS radome on Hawker Siddley HS-748 Avro aircraft (File Photo)[Credit : LiveFist]

Former fighter pilot Sameer Joshi on Twitter posted the above image of what seems to be an HS-748 Avro aircraft platform fitted with a rotodome on its fuselage. if you compare the rotodome with the old images of the flying prototype of the HS-748 Avro AWACS, this rotodome looks smaller and has more support structure in it. it’s not clear if the aircraft was intended to be used as a rotodome testing flying prototype or as a ground testing specimen for the AWACS India Program.

In 1999, HS-748 Avro AWACS aircraft was used as a testbed for DRDO’s Airborne Surveillance Platform (ASP) program when it crashed in the dense forest of north Tamil Nadu killing 8. ASP program at the time of the crash had completed most of the critical trials of the radar and the crash is believed to have happened to structural failure of the rotodome. It was rumored at that period that the second prototype was readied for testing of a near production-ready radar at the time before the program was closed and the picture may be of that of the second surviving prototype, but since details are in the public domain is vague about this, we shall wait for official confirmation.

Netra MkI

After a gap of five years, in 2004, a program known as Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&C) was sanctioned by DRDO to its lab, that led to the development of the Embraer-145 based development of an indigenous Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&C) now called Netra Mk1. Netra AEW&C used Active Antenna Array Unit (AAAU) mounted on the dorsal side of the aircraft fuselage using four pylons.

AWACS India & Netra MkII

AWACS India was planned to be based on the Airbus A330 aircraft fitted with a Fixed Aesa Radar inside its rotodome on its fuselage, but due to cost and also due to longer research and developmental duration required for the program to mature it was decided that Netra MkII instead will be developed for which Six Ex-Air India A319 aircraft will be fitted with an upgraded AAAU mounted on the dorsal side of the aircraft fuselage in addition to the frontal AESA Radar for better coverage.

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