India seeks homemade electronic warfare suites for Russian helos

The Indian Air Force is turning to domestic companies to build electronic warfare suites for its fleet of Russian Mi-17V-5 helicopters.

"We will submit a new proposal in the next three months to Ministry of Defence to seek project approval to source around 200 EW suites [that] cost around $100 million from domestic companies" a senior Air Force official said.

"Supply of complete set of EW suites appears to be beyond the capability of any single [Indian] company," said retired Air Force air marshal and defense analyst Daljit Singh.

However, the domestic companies will need to tie up with overseas original equipment manufacturers to build EW suites, said a senior MoD official, adding that the "MoD is hopeful that the domestic companies will be able to supply the suites for the [Russian] helicopters."

The Air Force currently has a fleet of about 150 Mi-17V-5 helicopters procured from Russia since 2008 in different phases. "The Mi-17V-5 makes up the backbone of the IAF's transport helicopter fleet," the Air Force official said.

Source: DefenceNews.