India's Virupaksha radar is set to revolutionise the country's fleet of Su-30MKI fighter jets given its leap in technology that would allow these aircraft to fire multiple air-to-air or air-to-ground missiles at targets besides doubling their ability to track, detect and neutralise threats from the adversary, military pundits have told Sputnik India.
Designing of the Virupaksha radar has started under a "Make in India" project, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) through its sister organisation, Electronics & Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) in cooperation with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).
"It should be noted that India is already at an advanced stage in the development of the Virupaksha radar and LRDE is about to fit the prototype of this radar on the Sukhoi-30MKI combat aircraft," Group Captain (Retd) Uttam Kumar Devnath, an IAF veteran, told Sputnik India on Monday.
He highlighted that Virupaksha was an upscaled version of the Uttam Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar that has already been installed on the LCA Tejas and hence, it is expected to track, detect, and monitor targets at a much longer range with far better accuracy.
"During trials, it has been able to track 64 to 100 targets simultaneously. Furthermore, it is vital for an Air Force pilot to launch multiple air-to-air missiles and Virupaksha radar has been successful in controlling, maneuvering, and steering six missiles at a target concurrently in air-to-air attack mode," added Devnath, who served as the head of the material-management group at the Defence Electronics Research Laboratory (DLRL) during his long stint in the Indian Armed Forces.
The expert reckoned that if successive trials show similar results, it is quite probable that the IAF would ask HAL to equip the Su-30MKIs with the Virupaksha radars. The project was not only important for the IAF's Su-30MKIs but also for India's defence exports, he highlighted.
"As Sukhoi-30s are operated by many air forces in the world, New Delhi is looking to export the Virupaksha to these countries as a far more powerful radar with the benefit of a lower price range," Devnath pointed out.
On the other hand, the induction of the Virupaksha on Su-30MKIs still has a long way to go, former IAF pilot and strategic affairs analyst Vijainder K. Thakur explained in a conversation with Sputnik India.
He revealed that the DRDO has yet to operationally field the Uttam AESA radar that it has developed for the LCA Mk-1A.
Thakur elaborated that user feedback on the operational efficacy of the Uttam radar will likely start flowing in only after it's operationally deployed, perhaps around 2026. Further, DRDO would need to tweak the software for the radar, if not the hardware, he added.
"The Uttam radar has 700 transmit/receive (T/R) modules. It's highly likely that the Virupaksha will feature at least twice the number of T/R modules fitted on the Uttam. Consequently, Virupaksha would be a much more powerful radar, since it would be radiating twice the energy of the Uttam, resulting in a significant increase in detection and tracking range," he concluded.
The initial batch of Indian Air Force's (IAF) Sukhoi fighter jets acquired from Russia were equipped with radars called N001VEP, while the MKI version of these aircraft had the NIIP N011M Bars (Panther) radars.