BANGALORE: India's foray into developing a homegrown Airborne Early Warning Control System (AEW CS), being built on a modified Embraer aircraft (EMB145 I), is seen as an ideal opportunity to ward off conflicts.The Centre for Air Borne Systems (CABS), a Defence Research and Development Organisation lab in Bangalore, has made inroads into the indigenous development of systems for a compact AEW CS, which would complement the IL76 AWACS, currently being operated by the Indian Air Force (IAF)."The EMB145 I will add more teeth to us (IAF) with our network-centric warfare operations warding off any potential conflicts. Hence, all our assets will now get a new dimension and their operations a new meaning - be it on the ground or while flying," sources said.The EMB145 I will be a multisensor platform providing for all aspects of airborne surveillance. While radars detect and identify targets as friends or foes, the electronics support measures provide details of hostile emitters. Communication support measures scrutinise signals and the self protection system warns of enemy radars and missiles. Advanced data links help interoperate with friendly fighters, other AEW CS aircraft and air defence systems on the ground. The data handling and display system facilitates total interfacing with the AEW CS and deriving operational information.The mission system controller, the heart of the AEW CS, integrates data from all the sensors and facilitates the surveillance operations. With the maiden flight of EMB145 I scheduled in Brazil on December 7, Embraer is ensuring stringent safety tests. One test is to put aircraft in steep dive or in a stall condition.The stall condition will reduce the aircraft speed to such an extent that it will start falling down. Hence, during the stall tests, the test pilots will have to respond fast and reverse the stall process to recover the aircraft flight. Parachutes are deployed to slow the fall, giving pilots time to increase the throttle and bring the aircraft out of the dangerous dive process.
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