HAL, Bharat Electronics ink deal to make indigenous search & track system for Su-30 MKI jets

Bengaluru, Apr 26 (PTI) Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on Tuesday said it has signed a contract with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) for co-development and co-production of Long Range Dual Band Infra-Red Search and Track System (IRST) for Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighter jets.

The contract was signed under the MAKE-II procedure of Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020, as part of the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

“The proposed IRST system will be a high-end strategic technology product in the field of defence avionics and technically competitive to existing IRST system in the global market with features of Television Day Camera, Infrared & LASER sensors in single window for air-to-air and air-to-ground target tracking and localization,” HAL said in a release. The system will enhance the Indian Air Force’s air superiority, it said.

The coming together of two defence PSUs for development of technologically critical IRST gives impetus to ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ in the defence sector, the release stated. This initiative also opens a future path in the field of indigenous defence manufacturing for development of high-end strategic technology products of IRST for various platforms in a global competitive environment, HAL added.

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