DRDO is developing an advanced surveillance platform based on a Hawker Siddeley HS 748 aircraft to detect targets at extended ranges with all-around azimuth coverage.
It is designed to handle 50 targets and features a hybrid navigation system, including both satellite and ground (beacon) based topography.
As revealed by air operations on the western front, timely information retrieval and coordination, namely vectoring and interception, could not be accomplished effectively from the ground.
The aircraft was unveiled to the public during flight demonstrations at the inauguration ceremony of the first Aero India show held in Bangalore in December 1996.
Two testbed aircraft transferred from the western command of the Indian Air Force, with tail numbers H-2175 and H-2176, were employed in the design program.
The platform's antenna is a slotted wave guide planar array and features very low side lobe levels and a narrow beam width in azimuth.
Presently, work is in hand to integrate GPS/GLONASS receivers with the inertial navigation system to enhance performance, reliability and robustness.
The main tasks allotted to CABS were the design, development, integration and evaluation of airborne electronic systems on a suitably modified flying platform for surveillance of airspace together with command and control functions and the transfer of appropriate technologies to industry.
The strategy adopted by CABS involved the development of an ASP using a rotodomed HS 748 aircraft as the flight test bed, as the first phase of the development of an indigenous airborne early warning technology to be evolved using a step by step, modular, low cost and low risk approach.
Though the IAF continued to operate them in a logistics role, military leaders did not favor use of this platform for an airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft.
The Ministry of Defence stated in February 1999 that ASP was not meant to meet the requirements of users but to induct and demonstrate the technology by utilizing the only viable platform.
The platform selected was the Brazilian Embraer with a CABS airborne Active Electronic Scanned Array (AESA) radar.
[6][7][8] The aircraft is fitted with Indian airborne Active Electronic Scanned Array (AESA) radar, giving it the capability to detect missiles and hostile fighters at all angles.