Article Posted on : - Oct 17, 2011

NEW DELH (PTI): The Indian Air Force is planning to procure and deploy bird detection radars at its various airfields to reduce the risk of accidents caused due to bird hits.

"The Defence Ministry intends to procure Bird Detection and Monitoring Radar System to reduce the risk of bird strike in air operations at various airfields," the IAF said in a Request for Information (RFI) document released on its website.

The RFI for the acquisition will be issued by the service after it gets response from the manufacturers across the world.

Bird hits are the reason behind at least nine per cent of the aircraft mishaps in the country as several cities and towns have come up close to IAF airfields such as Hindon, Jodhpur, Lohegaon and Agra.

The IAF has been taking various steps to reduce the risk of bird hits.

Under former Director General (Air Safety) Air Marshal V K Verma, the force had started various practices across major air bases to check birds getting close to airfields.

As per the data released by a Parliamentary panel, the IAF has lost 999 aircraft between 1970 and August this year and human error and technical defects were the main causes behind these crashes.

"In 39.5 per cent of the cases, technical defect is the cause and in 39 per cent of the cases, human error has been found to be responsible," the report had said.