The project for indigenous development of Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) system which was conceived in 2002 is yet to be fully realised, leaving gaps in air surveillance capability of the Indian Air Force (IAF), the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said in a report presented in Parliament on Tuesday.
“The project for indigenous development of AEW&C system was approved in 2004 at a cost of ₹1,800 crore to be completed by 2011. Besides, non-achievement of certain operational requirements specified by the IAF, there was time overrun of 70%. Selection of Embraer as platform created design constraints and caused delay,” the CAG noted in the report.
Deficiencies in quality
The deliverables of the project were short in terms of the project quality, besides time overrun, the CAG said and stated that primary reasons were “deficiencies in project management, project quality and project scope management.”
The AEW&C, also called eye-in-the-sky, is capable of long range surveillance and huge force multiplier for any force. AAR allows the aircraft to stay in the air much beyond their normal limits, paving way for better exploitation of the platforms capabilities.
In terms of money value, the extent of indigenisation achieved by the project was about 48%, excluding the cost of the imported platform which itself formed about 47% of the total cost of the project, the report said.
The federal auditor observed that operational requirements instead of being based on actual operations and functional needs of the IAF were “being adjusted according to the aircraft platform which was pre-selected.”
The Netra
The IAF formally inducted the Netra developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in February 2017. A total of three systems are being built and would be based at Bhatinda facing the western border. Netra gives a 240 degree coverage of airspace.