India beats Russia and Poland to bag US$ 40 million defence deal to supply radar systems to Armenia

In a major boost to the defence sector in the country and the governments ‘Make in India’ program, India has secured a $40 million defence deal to supply ‘Swathi’ – A Made in India weapon locating radars to Armenia. As per news sources, India beat Russia and Poland to bag the multi-million dollar deal.

The Swathi radar systems are developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO’s) Bengaluru-based laboratory Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) and manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

India has already begun supplying the radar system to Armenia in a major boost for the government’s ‘Make in India’ programme in the defence sector. Armenia filnalised the tried and tested Indian radar system after conducting detailed trials of systems offered by Russia and Poland.

‘Swathi’ in Indian Army

The ‘Swathi’ radar system is deployed by the Indian Army along the Line of Control (LoC) to detect incoming artillery fire from Pakistan. It was given to Army for trials in 2018. The system is a mobile artillery locating phased-array radar designed for spotting and tracking artillery and rocket fire for counter-action by artillery units.

Swathi is a coherent, C Band, passive electronically scanned phased array radar. Intended to be used as weapon locating radar, it has been designed to automatically detect and track incoming artillery rounds, mortar and rockets, and locate the hostile launchers. As a secondary function it can observe friendly artillery shell’s trajectory to see where they fall short and provide fire corrections to counter the enemy fire.

It can simultaneously detect multiple projectiles like shells, mortars fired from various locations within a 50-km radius. It is currently used by the Indian Army along the LoC in Jammu & Kashmir to track the source of shelling from Pakistani positions.