India to purchase 2 additional Phalcon AWACS radars from Israel

An Indian Air Force Il-76TD / A-50EI Phalcon AWACS escorted by 3 MiG-29 fighter aircraft.

The Indian Ministry of Defence (MOD) is close to approving an acquisition plan for 2 additional Phalcon airborne warning and control system (AWACS) from Israel in a deal that could cost around INR5.7 billion / 5,700 crore, or over US$800 million. 

The deal also involves Russia, as it would supply the aircraft platform based on the Ilyushin Il-76TD heavy transport aircraft. It is also called the A-50EI Phalcon in the Indian Air Force.

The deal encountered delays after India's Ministry of Finance objected to the sharp rise of cost for this deal compared to a similar deal in 2009 involving 3 similar AWACS aircraft. But this appears to have been settled.

India is currently lagging behind to its regional rivals China and Pakistan in AWACS deployment, with India only having 3 Il-76 Phalcon and 2 locally-developed Netra small AWACS in its fleet, while China and Pakistan have at least 30 and 8 AWACS aircraft in their fleets, respectively.

The ELM-2075 Phalcon system is made on Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) - Elta Systems, and is an L-band, solid-state Active Electronic Scanned Array (AESA) radar system using a traditional radome on top of the aircraft's fuselage. The A-50EI also have Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) and Communications Intelligence (COMINT) capabilities 


[1] Times of India
[2] Defense World
[3] Defense Industry Daily