India will get the first of its three Israeli 'Phalcon' AWACS sometime during this year’s second half. In the meantime, it has also inked a $210-million worth contract with Embraer, a Brazilian firm, for three aircraft for its own local miniature AWACS project. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India is developing its own airborne early warning and control systems, which will be attached to the three Brazilian Embraer-145 jets. The very first jet’s delivery has been scheduled for July 2011. Earlier too, India got five luxe EMB 135-BT ‘Legacy’ executive jets for its VVIPs through a Rs 727-crore contract with Embraer.

A senior officer has informed that India’s AEW&C project is worth Rs 1,800 Crore. He further mentioned that the Brazilian Embraer-145 jets will require certain changes for carrying the active array antenna units of the DRDO. He pointed out that the locally made AWACS will prove to be powerful force-multipliers even though it is not as superior as the Phalcons. ‘The full-fledged Embraer-145 based AEW&C will be flight-tested for mission systems in India by DRDO and IAF in 2012,’ the officer stated. The usefulness of AWACS lies in the fact that it can detect other aircraft. Used at a high altitude, the radars allow the operators to distinguish between friendly and hostile aircraft hundreds of miles away.