Origins
The ASP programme, code-named "Airavat", is one of the key force multipliers in the modern war scenario. India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is developing an advanced surveillance platform based on an Hawker Siddeley HS 748 aircraft to detect targets at extended ranges with all round azimuth coverage. It is designed to handle 50 targets. It features a Hybrid navigation system, including both satellite and ground (beacon) based topography. The communication and data links are dual redundant secure systems.
The origin of the program possibly lies in the aftermath of the 1971 Indo-Pak war. As witnessed by the air-operation in the western front, timely information and coordination, namely vectoring and interception cannot be done effectively from the ground. In the late 1979, the DRDO formed a team to study the possibility of mounting an airborne radar on an existing aircraft.
The problem was not the availability of suitable aircraft but the lack of an effective airborne radar. An ad hoc team of specialists from LRDE began work on developing an airborne radar, allowing the program to proceed. Studies and analysis began in July 1985 under project name 'Guardian', later it was renamed 'Airawat'.(Possibly in 1987) In the late 1980s an HS 748 was fitted with a 24 ft x 5 ft composite rotodome. The aircraft flew with the pylon, but not the dome, in May 1989 and with the rotodome in November 1990. The Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) was set up in February 1991, under Dr K. Ramchand to act as a system house and integration agency using all the expertise and infrastructure available in India. At the peak of its operations, some 300 Scientists and Engineers were involved in the project. The aircraft was unveiled to the public during flight demonstrations at the inauguration ceremony of the first Aero India show held in Bangalore in December 1996. Two testbeds transferred from the IAF's western command were employed in the design program, with tail numbers H-2175 & H-2176.
Read more about this topic: Airborne Surveillance Platform
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