HAL to Fly Production Version of AESA Radar in Jaguar Darin III Aircraft in March

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) will fly a Jaguar Darin III fighter with a production version of an ELTA-sourced Active Electronically Scanning Radar by March 2021.

The radar will be a completely built up unit (CBU) but integrated by HAL. The next phase will be that of a locally assembled radar brought in completely knocked down (CKD) condition followed by the radar made in India form the raw material stage, HAL executives said at Aero India 2021.

HAL’s Avionics Division has already acquired clearance for the primary AESA Radar to be fitted on the Jaguar DARIN III UPG plane. This will be the first production AESA radar to be fitted on any platform in India.

HAL had entered right into a contract with Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) for 54 of those underneath Transfer of Technology (ToT). As a part of the TOT, HAL will manufacture Gallium arsenide (GaAs) based mostly transistors and receivers that are a part of the radar Antenna.

The radar called ELTA ELM-2052 could also be chosen for 73 Tejas Mk1A fighter jets out of a total order for 83 jets.

The main antenna contains a radiating array of 320 T/R elements. The elements are packed with 20 tiles.  It can track 64 targets with a range of 80 km.

As per ELTA information, ELM-2052 is an advanced Fire Control Radar (FCR) designed for air-to-air superiority and strike missions, based on fully solid-state Active Electronically Scanning Array (AESA) technology, enabling the radar to achieve long detection ranges, high mission reliability and multi-target tracking capabilities.

The radar provides simultaneous modes of operation supporting multi-mission capabilities for air-to-air, air-to-ground and air-to-sea operation modes, and weapon deployment.