Tuesday, December 20 2005 16:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: India has developed a surveillance central acquisition radar and is also working on a weapon locating radar, officials of Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) said today (Dec 20, 2005).

Director of Bangalore-based LRDE, a DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) lab, S Varadarajan said LRDE has developed the multi beam 3D surveillance central acquisition radar at the group level for AKASH missile system.

He also said the weapon locating radar based on the Phased Array Rajendra radar technology and Airborne Maritime Patrol Radar for Naval Advanced Light Helicopter, is in advanced stage of joint development with BEL, a defence public sector undertaking.

"It (weapon locating radar) is in the final stage of evaluation. Once evaluation is complete, we will deliver it to armed forces", Chairman and Managing Director of BEL, Y Gopala Rao, told reporters on the sidelines of the International Radar Symposium India-2005 being held here.

Varadarajan said other important radar systems under development include 3D medium range surveillance radar for ship-borne and ground-based air defence and transportable low level light weight radars for air defence.

"A major programme has been launched in the area of Airborne Surveillance Radar for Early Warning and Control", he told the symposium.

Meanwhile, India has started exporting indigenously developed Battlefield Surveillance Radar (BFSR), short range.

Rao said Bangalore-based BEL manufactured as many as 1,000 units BFSR in the first eight months of the current fiscal year (April-November 2005) and delivered them to armed forces and indicated that BEL is eyeing markets in South-East Asia and Africa for this product.

He said BEL has initially delivered two units of BFSR to Indonesia for evaluation, adding, that country's requirement "seems to around 50 (units)". Sudan has also placed an order for ten units of BFSR, which are priced at around Rs 40 lakh each.

The product, being positioned as 'value-for-money', has also been demonstrated in Thailand, he said. "Some of the African countries have evinced interest".

With BFSR, one can survey battlefield, identify and detect a moving vehicle and crawling man, among other applications, BEL officials said.