Berlin: India's DRDO and the defence and security division of EADS have successfully developed a "missile warning system" and will start its serial production shortly.

This was announced during the ongoing Berlin Air Show here by EADS which also looked at India as a manufacturing hub from where the technology could be exported to other interested countries.

The system developed by EADS and DRDO's Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE) has passed extensive flight trials successfully, paving the way for equipping several hundred rotary wing and wide-bodied aircraft of the Indian armed forces, the consortium said.

The missile warning system, based on Missile Launch Detection System (MILDS), was tested on board an Indian Air Force test platform (aircraft) and was found perfect on all counts -- detection probability, accuracy, false alarm and reliability, said the Chief Executive Officer of EADS Defence and Security Division, Stefan Zoller.

"Due to this success, the missile warning system has been accepted as indigenous equipment by the Indian authorities," he said.

"After initial cooperation of Defence Electronics and (Bangalore-based) Alpha Technologies which has already been started, the transition of series production at the Alpha manufacturing base is foreseen in near future," the EADS said while making the announcement.

"With DARE's and Alpha's high technology standards and our proven products, we are confident of fulfilling the Indian armed forces needs for reliable protection against increasing threats," Bernd Wenzler, another top-ranking official of EADS, said.

Zoller, while talking about the cooperation with India in various fields, said this could be seen as part of EADS's efforts to rope in as many as Indian partners for its international ventures.

"We do not see India only as a partner but also as a manufacturing hub where such systems can be assembled and later exported to other countries," he said.

Asked whether the consortium was planning to equip civilian aircraft too with the missile warning systems, he said it was future business but admitted that civilian carriers like Singapore Airlines had shown their keenness to have such a system.

Source : PTI