IAF network-centricity plans go haywire due to AWACS delay
2008-09-28 [13:12:42 hrs] | | | The Indian Air Force's (IAF) plans to go network-centric has gone haywire as the Israeli airborne early warning systems delivery gets delayed further. |
| | | The PHALCON Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) will arrive only in February next year, about 15 months behind its original schedule of November 2007.
Consequently, the IAF efforts to establish an advanced Integrated Air Command and Control Systems (IACCS) through the Air Force Net (AF Net) communication network would be hit.
"AF Net, may be (delayed by) a month or two. We were expecting it around December. Now it is coming around February," IAF chief Fali Homi Major said on Sunday.
"Two months is no delay as far as we are concerned," Major added, suggesting the IAF would strive to offset the delay from their side.
Meanwhile, IAF Vice Chief Air Marshal P V Naik, referring to the escalation in delivery schedule of AWACS till February 2009, said some technical glitches were the reasons behind the delay.
AWACS, a major force multiplier for the IAF, is a vital link in the Air Force Net, a communication network that is key to IAF's dreams of emerging as a network-centric force.
The USD 1.1-billion deal was signed by India in March 2004 for three AWACS from Israeli Aerospace Industries for mounting the systems on three Russian-made IL-76 heavy lift transport aircraft.
IAF's Agra air base is readying itself to receive the AWACS by improving its infrastructure, including extending the runway, establishing an avionics lab and integrating ground systems for future operations of the radar-mounted IL-76s aircraft. |
|
