New electronic warfare system developed
The Hindu Business Line, January 20, 2004

In a major breakthrough for multiple applications, a consortium of companies headed by the Defence Electronic Research Laboratory (DLRL) has designed and developed an electronic warfare system that combines the radar and communications frequency bands and provides an ideal surveillance system both for defence and peace-time requirements.

The President, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, on Monday handed over the first batch of 26 vehicles fitted with it under project Samyukta, to the Chief of Army Staff, General N CVij, in the presence of the Union Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes. Dr Kalam was the brain behind this indigenisation and self-reliance project that takes India to a new league of defence preparedness.

Samyukta, an integrated electronic warfare system, is a joint Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Army programme, and operates on ground mobile vehicles and covers range of frequencies. The coverage of electromagnetic spectrum of frequencies is handled through two segments — the communication segment and the non-communication segment, which will be integrated with the master control centre through transmission stations.

The principal scientific advisor to defence minister, Dr V K Aatre, said that this block of communication network is part of a system that comprises 145 vehicles and three such systems are planned to be rolled out by the year-end. Each system covers a total area of 150 km by 70 km. This has taken India to a different league in electronics systems development and applications capability.

A consortium of research agencies lead by DRDO, the Electronics System Engineering Centre of the Defence Electronics Research Laboratory, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Electronics Corporation of India Ltd, CMC Ltd, Tata group among 40 other small companies have contributed to the success of this hundred of crores worth project, Dr Aatre said.

Dr Aatre said that the project had to develop a lot of technologies indigenously since it had to tackle denial of technology after Pokhran II. The magnitude of this project could be gauged from the fact that it involved about three million lines of software coding work and could soon go on to about five million lines and possibly even 10 million lines.

This is part of the long-term self-reliance initiative in technologies and systems, which has been the driving goal for DLRL. A great emphasis has been laid on concurrent development of subsystems and systems in association with several public sector undertakings as also private sector participation. This has led to the development of a number of electronic warfare systems, he said.

These electronic warfare systems have the capability to detect electronic support measures detection, provide jamming facility as also electronically counter various surveillance measures. The system combines the advantages of three such electronic warning systems — Tempest used for air warfare, Samyukta for army and Sangraha useful for navy.

Dr Aatre described the development as a major milestone and the largest electronics project tackled by the DRDO. It has provided the country with the ability to dominate the electromagnetic spectrum during a battle.

Since, it is presumed that enemy has similar systems, the electronic system has to meet such challenges.

Later, answering queries Dr Aatre said that the country would be able to launch Agni III missile sometime during the year.