The Indian Air Force (IAF) will deploy more low-level aerial surveillance systems in the peninsular region to guard the country's 4,000-km-long coastline against hostile low-flying aircraft, gliders, and unmanned surveillance drones.
Speaking on the sidelines of Wednesday's launch of the fourth edition of Dakshin Prahar, a military exercise conducted annually to gauge and sharpen the IAF's preparedness to combat a range of threats, senior officials said the proposed air defence assets included aerostat radars, which use large balloons moored to the ground as platforms, and low-level transportable radars.
Radar features
The officials said the radars can detect and track low-flying objects as far as 300km away and possibly help the IAF thwart even unconventional attacks and intrusions by “non-state players” using powered gliders and remote-controlled aero models, which have a relatively low radar signature.
They said the IAF's capability to project its power in the Indian Ocean region would grow exponentially with the commissioning of the proposed full-fledged military airfield at Kayathar in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu.
The 1,700-acre facility will possibly house a range of modern IAF assets, including at least three squadrons of modern multi-role fighter aircraft, helicopter gunships, air-to-air refuelling aircraft, transport planes, and ground-based air-defence systems.
The proposed base will have at least 120 officers and nearly 2,000 men.
Details of exercise
Air Vice Marshal K.P. Nair and Air Commodore Anil Kumar Jayanth told TheHindu that six Sukhoi 30 MKIs (the IAF's multi-role air superiority strike fighter) of the Number 30 ‘Rhino' Squadron based in Pune, and eight British-French-built Jaguar ground attack aircraft of the Number 6 ‘Dragon' Squadron based in Jamnagar, will take part in the Dakshin Prahar exercise along with fuel tanker aircraft and the recently acquired Russian made IL-76-fitted Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS).
They said the Jaguars will fly from Thiruvananthapuram and the Sukhois from an air base in Goa. The AWACs will operate from their base in Agra.
The Jaguars, at times escorted by fighter aircraft, will attempt to evade the IAF's integrated civilian and military radar networks, air-to-ground missile systems, and spotters on the ground, to carry out simulated strikes against targets in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The Sukhois, deployed on an “offensive sweep” mission, will attempt to deter or neutralise the attacking aircraft. The data from the AWACs and radars, including those operated by the Navy, will be used both by the defending and striking forces.
The IAF will use dummy flying targets, shoulder-fired ground-to-air missiles (described as a “minimal but last defence” against aerial attacks once the fighters and air defence systems have failed to deter enemy bombers), and laser-guided precision bombs. There will be no use of live ammunition.
A major component of the exercise will be an unconventional threat from a transport aircraft that will deliberately stray off its pre-designated flight path to approach a high value “scientific or nuclear power” facility on the ground.
The exercise will conclude on February 13.
The aircraft will be deployed later to support the Navy in its annual Tropex exercise, which would include airpower-backed amphibious “assaults” by ground troops and special forces on the mainland and certain islets. The exercise will not disrupt civilian flights.
