Indian Army to buy ‘Advanced Electronic Warfare Systems’

The Indian Army to buy an ultramodern electronic warfare system to thwart any kind of attack on military bases across the country.

The head of the Indian Army, General Bipin Rawat, on Wednesday said that there have been intelligence inputs about a possible terror attack on security establishments and that there was an urgent requirement for a better intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance system to keep an eye on adversaries on the western and northern borders of the country.

“We are also looking at electronic warfare (EW) and an early warning system to keep an eye not just on borders but in the hinterland also,” General Rawat said. He also flagged concern over the security situations of the military establishments in the hinterland. “The security of bases in the hinterland is a cause for concern,” Rawat warned.

The Indian Army has placed the requirement of an electronic warfare (EW) system based on mesh topology to replace the present-day star topology, which is not bound by the radio line of sight of the equipment used or the need to communicate with direction finding vehicles and jammer vehicles.

A mesh-based EW system will increase the range of uninterrupted and faster communication of data and voice at the same time. “Multiple routes are available for the information to flow thereby guaranteeing delivery of information. Even if the attrition rate is taken into account, a message will always flow due to multiple paths being available,” an army official said about the mesh-based system.

Last year, terrorists had conducted three major attacks on military establishments near the northern and western borders. In January 2016, heavily armed terrorists attacked Pathankot air base and killed six soldiers in a three-day siege. In September 2016, 19 soldiers lost their lives in an attack on an Indian Army brigade headquarters in Uri.