Article Posted on : - Aug 10, 2011

A-50 AWACS.

MOSCOW (PTI): Russia is planning to develop new generation airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft by 2016 as part of an ambitious modernisation plan for its armed forces, the Russian Air Chief said on Tuesday.

"We are expecting to receive the A-100 AWACS on the Ilyushin Il-476 platform powered by the PS-90 engine for extended flight range," Colonel General Alexander Zelin announced at a news conference here.

Unlike the present A-50 AWACS on Ilyushin Il-76 platform, the new aircraft will have advanced active phased array radar capable of detecting and tracking multiple airborne and land-based targets.

The Russian Air Force has around 20 A-50 mainstay AWACS planes equipped with the large Liana surveillance radar with its antenna in an over-fuselage rotodome and can control up to ten fighter aircraft for either air-to-air intercept or air-to-ground attack missions.

"We will have the Il-476 platform by 2013-2014 and should be able to build this plane by 2016," Gen Zelin was quoted as saying by Interfax, the Russian non-governmental news agency.

India has acquired three A-50 AWACS fitted with Israeli Phalcon radar under a trilateral deal with Russia and Israel.

India received the first A-50EI plane in May 2009 and the second in March 2010.

It is expected that the third aircraft will be delivered by the end of the year and could acquire two more aircraft in addition to the initial deal signed in 2004.