India to receive first AWACS aircraft from Russia soon

BANGALORE -- "The AWACS version of Il-76 will be soon delivered to India," Viktor Livanov, vice-president of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation, said at Aero India 2009. A-50 Mainstay AWACS aircraft is developed on the basis of Il-76MD military transport plane. India ordered three A-50EI variants fitted with the Israeli-made Phalcon radar system in 2001. The first aircraft was scheduled to arrive in 2007-08 but has been delayed. The A-50 is comparable to the E-3 Sentry of the U.S. Air Force in many aspects. A-50, fitted with an aerial refueling system and electronic warfare equipment, can detect targets up to 400 km away. The existing Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation program until 2010 includes up to 200 projects worth about $18 billion. In addition to the Russian A-50 aircraft, India has signed a deal with Brazil to jointly integrate domestically developed AWACS systems onto three Brazilian-made Embraer-145 aircraft to be later commissioned with the Indian Air Force.