INDIAN ARMY GOES GLOBAL HUNTING FOR SMART EW SYSTEMS
By Bulbul Singh
24 Jun 07. Indian Army has mooted a new modernization plan under which it will purchase sophisticated electronic warfare gears to carry out effective low intensity operations especially in the Kashmir valley bordering Pakistan.
Senior Indian Army officials said there is an urgent need for the Indian Army to transform into a more swift responsive force, capable of dominating across the operational spectrum. With the help of new intelligent electronic warfare systems, the Indian Army intends to develop the ability to deploy faster, maneuver more quickly, engage targets beyond line of sight and dictate the time to carry out effective war-fighting operations.
The Indian Army in July will float a $133m limited global tender for purchase of mobile electronic warfare (EW) systems to support Army troop operations at the Pakistan border. The global tender will be sent to U.S. firms Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, France’s Thales, Rohde & Schwarz of Germany, Rafael and Elta of Israel, and India’s state-owned Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) and Electronic Corporation of India Ltd. (ECIL).
These smart EW systems will also be capable to operate in desert or semi-desert conditions, and will have new generation Global Positioning System receivers.
The new EW systems will be linked with intelligence fusion systems, which will provide automated intelligence analysis, battlefield visualization, management of EW systems on ground, and production and dissemination of intelligence to war fighting commanders and troops deployed on the frontline areas. Indian Army officials further noted that they also in the process of having a dedicated military satellite which will be linked with smart EW systems on the ground.
The intelligence fusion systems will actually be the EW systems interface to the battle command systems and will provide the ground force threat picture to the joint command operational picture. Once these systems are fully linked with Indian Army’s military satellite, it will provide intelligence with its true knowledge-based architecture. These smart systems will eventually support the troops on the ground from theater to battalion, providing a timely, accurate, common and relevant enemy picture to commanders.
Indian Army officials pointed out that once the dedicated military satellite is fully operational, it will have very sophisticated aerial common sensor to control the battle-space area on ground from space. The aerial common sensor will be a truly multi-intelligence collection system providing target able intelligence against both multi-intelligence sensors which will provide the commander real-time target able information from target development through battle damage assessment within his decision cycle.
Sensor payloads will have variety of smart systems including communications intelligence, electronic intelligence, imagery intelligence and measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT), such as electro-optic (EO), infrared (IR), synthetic aperture radar (SAR), moving target indicator (MTI), multi- and hyper-spectral imagery sensors.
The Indian Army is also inducting several dozen Heron high altitude unmanned aerial vehicles which will also linked with the military satellite which also will also be interfaced with smart electronic warfare systems on ground.