An important step in the development of India’s airborne infrared sensing capabilities has been taken with the issuance of a Request for Proposal (RFP) for flight test-bed services by the Instruments Research & Development Establishment (IRDE) of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) to support the airborne evaluation of its domestic Long-Range Detection and Tracking System (LRDTS).
Two LRDTS hardware prototypes, called SB1 and SB2, will be the subject of the evaluation program. Both are slated to go through rigorous airborne testing under operationally realistic conditions.
The campaign’s main flight test platform will be a modified British Aerospace BAE 125-800A, also referred to as the Hawker-800 series.
About 45 flight hours on the Hawker testbed are required for the test program.
To verify system performance under various climatic and operational situations, testing will be carried out over a wide altitude range from 5,000 feet to 29,000 feet.
During both daytime and nighttime sorties, the flight campaign will also expose the system to a variety of backgrounds, such as industrial, maritime, and land situations.
For infrared search-and-track (IRST) systems, whose performance can be impacted by background clutter, temperature fluctuations, and environmental factors, such varied testing circumstances are especially crucial.
Operators may monitor airborne targets while retaining a smaller electromagnetic signature thanks to IRST technology, which passively detects and tracks aircraft by their infrared emissions without broadcasting radar energy, in contrast to traditional radar systems.
The program’s technological design states that the LRDTS has a nose-mounted Sensor Head Unit that weighs around 25 kg and uses about 350 watts of power.
Using ARINC 818 Fiber Channel video links, MIL-STD-1553B interfaces, and Ethernet connectivity connected to a Mission Computer Simulator located within the aircraft cabin, the sensor suite will be integrated with onboard aircraft test systems.
The goal of the planned trials is to produce thorough performance data on the indigenous system’s capacity to identify, obtain, and follow aerial targets in a variety of operational circumstances.
IRDE, a member of DRDO’s Electronics and Communication Systems cluster, has played a significant role in India’s domestic sensor development activities and specializes in the creation of electronic, electro-optical, and laser-based systems for defense purposes.
The flight test campaign will be carried out from Bangalore during the 45-month duration of the airborne evaluation project.
The program is anticipated to support India’s overarching goal of lowering dependency on imported electro-optical surveillance and targeting technologies by helping to develop domestic airborne sensor solutions for cutting-edge combat aircraft and other military aviation platforms.
