India’s mega eye-in-the-sky plan has got the final approval from the centre. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) gave clearance to the Rs 10990 crores plan. The project had been given the initial acceptance of necessity status by Defence ministry last December.
The indigenous project includes making six airborne early-warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, that will boost the surveillance capacity of the Indian Air Force (IAF) along the LoC and LAC.
In this project, home-build 360 degrees coverage active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars will be mounted on six narrow-body Airbus-321 passenger planes.
As per the sources, the planes will be bought from Air India at much cheaper rates. Airbus will then help modify them by mounting indigenous radars and other required tools.
The final deadline given to the AEW&C projects is 7 years from now. The first testing is expected to start in four years.
