First pics of India's IL-76 PHALCON AWACS

[+ghostrider883 526]

India's first IL-76 AWACS at Beriev's Taganrog site prior to delivery to IAI for fitting out

 

The engines seem to be bigger than the ones on an IL-76MD. One can see IAF finfash in the first pic

Press release from Beriev:

BERIEV

Aircraft

Company

 

No. 122 dt. January 21, 2008.

 

On the 20th of January, 2008 "EI" airborne early warning aircraft was ferried from Taganrog to Israel to undergo further activities on the installation and testing of the mission system. As planned, the aircraft shall be delivered to the End User this year.

AEW aircraft ("EI") is built for a foreign Customer pursuant to a contract awarded by the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Rosoboronexport".

Currently Beriev Aircraft Company continues the activities under the Contract.

Probably means that the aircraft will be designated as A-50EI.

Edited March 8, 2008 by ghostrider883

[Silverbolt 104]

Congratulations for the Hindus!

Great plane!

[+Dave 2,322]

Anything AWAC's is cool by me and that is very cool.

[Viggen 644]

That looks cool. Congrats to India.

[Miya_Sama 0]

I though that this was the PHALCON or at least that the radar in question was of an AESA type rather than a planar array as such would be in a rotating dome

[censored 0]

The Phalcon system is AESA. It can be fitted to a variety of platforms. India just wanted to use a Russian airframe similar to ones that they were already familiar with. In this instance, since a dome-version is already available, it was easier to install the system into the existing dome (providing 360-degree coverage) than to develop conformal-mounts for the fuselage. The radar array, however, is part of the same modular family that was provided to Chile.

[+ghostrider883 526]

I though that this was the PHALCON or at least that the radar in question was of an AESA type rather than a planar array as such would be in a rotating dome

 

The IL-76 PHALCON AWACS that was supposed to be delivered to China by Israel looked similar to the Indian ones(until US opposed it & the deal was cancelled)

[+ghostrider883 526]

IAF clears proposals to purchase three more AWACS

 

New Delhi, April 13: As India prepares to receive the first of its Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) Phalcon, Indian Air Force has cleared proposals to acquire three more such platforms.

 

The proposals have been forwarded to the Defence Ministry to enable placing of follow-on order estimated to be worth USD 2 billion for Phalcon IL-76TD, a top IAF official said.

 

With this, IAF now proposes to field six such platforms with delivery expected to be completed between 2009-2012.

 

These AWACS will bolster India's air-surveillance capability multi-fold giving it an eye-in-the-air to detect enemy planes and missiles while in flight far away.

 

India will get the delivery of first of its three Phalcons AWACS in September this year and the follow-on platforms in April 2009 and August 2010.

 

The first of the Phalcon AWACS powered by 4PS-90A-76 engines is currently being fitted out with mission sensors and management suites and will be ready for roll out by end of next month for flight certification, a top Israeli Aircraft Industry (IAI) official said.

 

"Air platforms have already undergone maiden flight tests in November last year and again in January and February this year in Russia," he said.

 

India was to receive deliveries of the first of these aircrafts in December 2007, but the transfer was delayed due to time over-runs in customising the airframes by Uzbekistan’s Tashkent Aircraft Production Organisation (TAPO).

 

India had inked the USD 1.5 billion contract in November 2003 with Russia's Rosoboronexport Corporation and Israel's IAI for purchase of three AWACS