The new Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in a press conference held on Tuesday 5 October), ahead of the Air Force Day, said, India is working on the Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition & Reconnaissance (ISTAR) programme with the United States under the India-US Defence Technologies and Trade Initiative (DTTI) initiative.
Once this program is implemented commanders will be able to make a clear, multi-faceted picture of the changes in the battlefield to make the right decisions as ISTAR aircraft uses artificial intelligence, integrated onboard sensors, and advanced processing rapidly and at a long-range to provide critical information on enemy movements, dispositions, and communications in real-time.
One of the most difficult things for commanders is to keep a check on the movement of mobile ground targets and this platform can help track them and it is also very useful to map natural disaster areas, monitor vessels to enforce maritime embargoes, and keep an eye on activities near borders and littoral areas.
This system comes with complete battlefield management and command-and-control processing capability which gives flexibility and in planning and executing missions.
India’s ISTAR will have multiple intelligence or multi-INT, technology, meaning data from multiple sensors across the spectrum will be combined to draw to give a complete picture and give planners more situational awareness on the battlefield as this system gives significantly more coverage than a radar-only system.
The DRDO’s Centre for Airborne Systems has been working on the sensors package required for the development of the platform and it is the same team that worked on the Netra Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft that has been split into two, with one part working on the ISTAR programme.
A Livefist report published earlier this year said the government is “all set to clear paperwork in the coming months to acquire a U.S. ISTAR battlefield and ground surveillance aircraft platform.”
It now seems with the growing threat in the Indo-Pacific, the US will supply India with one ISTAR aircraft while the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will develop the sensors package and other critical technologies for an additional four aircraft of the type and the Indian ISTAR aircraft is likely to be based on the Global Express business jet platform built by Bombardier.
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