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Joint venture to service Russian radars right here

Bangalore: For servicing, overhauling and providing immediate replacement of spares for the Russian manufactured Kopyo radar — an integral part of the Indian Air Force’s MiG series fighter aircraft — a Bangalore-based company, Alpha Design Technologies, has entered into a joint venture with Phazotron, original equipment manufacturer. Kopyo is the primary radar used on the upgraded 126 aircraft MiG-21 Bis fleet.

For long both the IAF and the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (that produced a majority of the MiGs series aircraft) have found the need for a dedicated maintenance, repair and overhaul facility for Kopyo. The technology required to overhaul these radars was not transferred to HAL when the aircraft were purchased.

The new company, Alpha Phazotron Radar Systems Private Limited, will have an initial equity of $6,00,000 (about Rs. 2.5 crore), with the Indian firm contributing 74 per cent and Phazotron, 26 per cent. The joint venture will allow transmitter-receiver modules and sub-systems of Kopyo to be overhauled, repaired or even replaced right here in India.

At present, spares come from Russia for the Kopyo modules and sub-systems which are also being sent to Phazotron factories for overhaul or repair. In addition to delays on account of distance and governmental clearances, repairs to these radars, which have exceeded their warranty period, necessitate assessment, quotations, and negotiations and only then can the orders be placed.

Alpha Design Technologies chairman and managing director Col. (retd.) H.S. Shankar told The Hindu that repairable modules/subsystems would be collected from HAL when the MiG-21 Bis come in for overhaul, from the IAF’s base rep air depots or even from the forward bases, and serviced and sent back. “We will replace radars in need of repair with our readily available spares. The repairable ones will be added to our stock of spares. The IAF and HAL will get an immediate replacement of spares and service.”

Col. Shankar said his company had secured the industrial licence from the Union Industries and Commerce Ministry after Defence Ministry concurrence and Foreign Investment Promotion Board approval. Alpha Design Technologies would not pay anything for the technology but would be a partner with Phazotron “working from the module stage up.”

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