Indian Navy eyeing U.S. airborne early warning aircraft

Navy eyeing U.S. airborne early warning aircraft

BANGALORE, FEB. 10. Keen on acquiring six all-weather Hawkeye E-2C Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft, the Navy has invited next week the United States defence firm Northrop Grumman, aircraft manufacturer, for initial aircraft carrier compatibility assessment.

The Navy is looking at equipping the carrier Gorshkov (INS Vikramaditya) with the E-2C.

The U.S. Government has issued Grumman the licence to open technical discussions with the Navy for sale of the aircraft. The U.S. has also provided the necessary "price and availability" document to go ahead with the talks, a top company official told The Hindu .

Delivery

The assessment will be followed by a "request for proposal" before the final deal.But the company officials said the first delivery of the aircraft would take at least a year after the contract is signed.

The company wants to build up the necessary offset business mechanism before the deal comes through. "Over the last one year, we have been in dialogue with several Indian companies — big and small — including Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Tata Sons Ltd (TSL), for offset business," the company's manager (offset programmes), Edward C. Gordon, said.

Last December, Northrop Grumman's chief engineer, Mark Kassner, made a presentation on the aircraft to the Navy Chief. The Navy is in the process of chalking out its need for an integrated communications system.

AWACS

Although the Navy does not have the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) capability, six Israeli Phalcon AWACS — to be mounted on the Ilyushin-76 platform — are in the pipeline for the Air Force. Besides, the Defence Research and Development Organisation's (DRDO) Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) is developing an indigenous airborne early warning system after the project was revived last year by the Cabinet Committee on Security.

The Hawkeye E-2C is billed as the only aircraft in the world designed for airborne early warning.

Incidentally, it was the centrepiece of the U.S. Navy's "Operation Iraqi Freedom." While the U.S. Navy has about 75 of these aircraft, Egypt and Taiwan have six each, Japan 13, Singapore four and Mexico and France three each. Butonly the American and French navies are operating them off aircraft carriers. India will be the third country if the deal comes through.