New Delhi (Sputnik) — French firm Thales has made a strong pitch for India's $1.8 billion global tender for the state-of-the-art active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar systems that were successfully tested on the Tejas MK1A light combat aircraft at the Cazaux airbase in France. The flight test conducted a few weeks ago mainly focused on metrological analyses of the radar performance.
"In order to meet the needs of the Indian manufacturer HAL, Thales is offering lightweight compact active array radar. The Thales radar is compliant with requirements and provides simultaneous modes of operation supporting multi-mission capabilities for air to air, air to ground and air to sea operation modes and weapon deployment," Thales said in a statement.
Meanwhile, India is also preparing its own AESA radars. The Defense Research Development Organization's $67 million AESA project is likely to be completed by May 2019 with a delay of three years. The locally developed AESA radars will be fitted onto the upgraded version of the light combat aircraft- Tejas MK 2.
