The Indian Navy will be
the first of the country’s three armed services to induct new-generation
software-defined radios (SDR), following a contract signature on August 8, 2019
with state-owned Bharat
Electronics Limited (BEL), the producer of the SDRs. It was on November 29, 2017 that
the Defence Acquisition Council of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had cleared
procurement of these SDRs, valued at Rs.490 crore (US$70.64 million).
More than 260 SDRs of different types are being
procured under the Indigenously Designed Developed and Manufactured (IDDM)
category.
While the MoD-owned Defence Research
& Development Organisation (DRDO) designed and developed the SDRs, it was
assisted by multiple agencies, including the Centre for Development of Advanced
Computing (CDAC), Centre for Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (CAIR), and
the Indian Navy’s Weapon and Electronics System Engineering Establishment
(WESEE). The contract involves the replacement of existing hardware-based
legacy communication sets with software-based multi-band, multi-functional and
multi-role/mission radios. This is to enable secure communications for improved
information sharing and situational awareness. The SDRs feature domestic
waveforms capable of providing a wide range of frequency usage and capability
enhancement. The DRDO had worked on the Integrated Development of
Software-Defined Radio (INDESDR) project for eight years. Following the
development of the radios, the DRDO conducted user-trials for five different
SDRs, all of which will be seamlessly interfaced with the Indian Navy’s new-generation digital network (NAVNET).
On October 16, 2018,
Vedanta Group’s Pune-based Sterlite Tech, a digital networks and telecom solutions company, bagged a Rs.3,500 crore
contract from the Indian Navy deal to
design, build, operate and maintain the NAVNET. The multi-year contract includes
design, execution, operations and
maintenance of the NAVNET. Sterlite Tech will build a robust integrated communications network that would
provide a secure, reliable and seamless
digital highway to the Indian Navy for administrative
and operational applications. This network will give the Indian Navy digital defence supremacy at par with the
best naval forces in the world, Sterlite,
which also manufactures optic-fibre cables
domestically. The initiative includes creation of an independent high-capacity end-to-end communications
network, linking multiple static Indian
Navy sites and India-administered islands, and includes the setting-up of highly secure data centres and Big Data
content delivery software-defined
next-generation networks. This is the first time an integrated end-to-end digital network at such a scale is being
built in India, empowering the Indian Navy to
secure the country’s borders till the farthest
posts in India. The technology will also enable the Indian Navy to ride new-age applications with advanced
security solutions while bringing
real-time situational awareness and faster decision making.
At the apex-level is
the Army Strategic Operational Information Dissemination
System (ASTROIDS), which connects Army Headquarters to the Command Headquarters and forward to the Corps
Headquarters while rearwards it will
connect to the national command post, the other Services and other national level entities. The latter portion dealing
with the national strategic level will be
enabled through the C4I2SR (Command,
Control, Computers, Communications, Intelligence, Information, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) System
when it gets established.
The Army Static Switched Communications (ASCON)
system’s third-tier, commissioned in September 2006, is called Mercury Thunder
and it forms the backbone communications network of the Indian Army. ASCON provides voice and data links between
static command/formation headquarters and those in peacetime locations. It is
of modular design so that it can be upgraded as better technology becomes
available. As a back-up, the Indian Army
also deployed the static fibre-optic Army Intranet,
known as the Army Wide Area Network (AWAN) February 24, 2006. Mercury Thunder
builds on Mercury Streak that created an optical
fibre cable (OFC) network for the Army in 1995, and Mercury Flash that provided a microwave network in 1998.
Mercury Thunder enables the integration
of its predecessors with a satellite-based overlay
that enables seamless transfers over all three systems. It enables the transmission of real-time battlefield data to top
commanders during hostilities and also
enables a qualitative improvement in relief and rescue operations when natural disasters strike. Mercury Thunder raises
the number of channels on which voice
conversations can be simultaneously transmitted from 120 to 10,000. Since ASCON
supports a mix of voice, data and video
transfer, the number of channels available
at any given time would depend on what mix of the three was adopted.
Field-level Command
Information Decision Support System (CIDSS) is under
the command and control of the GOC Corps Commander. Field-level ‘Project Sanjay’ Battlefield Surveillance System
(BSS), ‘Shakti’ Artillery Command Control
and Communications System (CCCS), Air Defence Control and Reporting System (ADC & RS) and Battlefield
Management System (BMS) are all bound by
the CIDSS as the backbone, also configured to integrate field-level systems like the EWS and ELINT (the Samyukta/Himshakti
systems). in an effort to present a holistic
picture to a commander and his senior
staff officers to ease the decision-making process. The second vital link will connect the Corps Headquarters
forward to the Battalion Headquarters.
This will be the Tactical C3I (Command, Control,
Communications and Intelligence) system or tac-4g, which will use the 4-G
cellular telecommunications networks already established by BSNL, as well as
those if private-sector service providers like Reliance JIO.
TAC-4G is based on a flat-IP network architecture which provides flexible and fast
communications between many users. This
includes fast-and-secure communications between different points and support of concurrent running of multiple applications, many of which require high bandwidth.
The high flexibility of TAC-4G along with
additional inherent capabilities such as
information security, on-the-move network infrastructure, and support of multiple applications, positions the system
as an optimal solution for addressing the
complex military communications requirements.
TAC-4G also supports a wide variety of multimedia applications and allows quick and easy addition or
removal of applications. It also
implements the ‘network-centric warfare’ principle;
allows various-level commanders the highest level of control and effective activation of various
warfighting, logistics and maintenance
forces; allows, real-time battlefield management and control; uses the cost-effective commercial cellular
network providers’ infrastructure, which
allows shorter implementation time and
fewer risks in comparison to other alternatives that are not based on COTS infrastructures.
Air Force Network (AFNet)
is an Indian Air Force (IAF) owned, operated and managed digital information grid.
The AFNet replaces the old communication network set-up using the troposcatter technology of the 1950s making it a true
net-centric combat force. The AFNet
project is also part of the overall mission to network all three armed services: that is the Indian Army, Indian Navy
and the Indian Air Force. Commissioned on
September 14, 2010, AFNET is a fibre optic-based network on which the
integrated air command, control and communications system (IACCCS) of the IAF
rides. It also provides a real-time
sensor-to-shooter loop, which will enable IAF
commanders to make instant decisions to order the weapons to be deployed. AFNet is a dedicated fibre-optic network
that offers up to 500 MBPS encrypted,
secure bandwidth. It incorporates the latest traffic transportation technology in the form of IP (Internet Protocol) packets over the network using
Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS). A
large VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) layer with stringent quality of service enforcement facilitates robust, high-quality voice, video and conferencing solutions. All
major IAF formations and static establishments
have been linked through a secure Wide Area Network (WAN) and are accessible through data communication
lines. Decision-makers can now get
intelligence inputs (for example, video feed
from UAVs, real-time air situation pictures from AEW & CS platforms etc.)
from far-flung areas at central locations
seamlessly.
AFNet can be described as a perfect example of public-private partnership. The Rs.1,077 crore project,
which started in 2006, was developed by Bharat
Sanchar Nigam Ltd (Department of
Telecommunications DoT), HCL Infosystems and Cisco Systems in collaboration with the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The
DoT started the project in the previous decade to set up a dedicated fibre-optic network for the
exclusive use of Indian armed forces at a
cost of Rs.10,000 crore. As per the agreement, the DoT is required to lay about
40,000km of optical fibre cable
connecting 219 army stations, 33 naval stations and 162 points for the air force (so far, work pertaining to the air
force and navy has been completed). In
exchange, the armed forces have released the frequency spectrums.
SDR Manpack For Indian Army
SOFTNET Combined SDR-Tactical Data-Link
BNET-AR Combined SDR-Tactical Data-Link For Tejas Mk.1A L-MRCA
Airborne Internally-Mounted Fire-Control System For BrahMos-A ALCM
SATCOM Terminals For India’s Strategic Forces Command
These are the very terminals now being used by the authorities in the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and in Ladakh for command, control and communications.
BrahMos-1 Quad-Launcher For Project 15 DDG Mid-Life Upgrade
Other Elements Of Project 15 DDG Mid-Life Upgrade
Following exhaustive
competitive evaluations, Spain-based INDRA, in which US-based Raytheon owns a
40% stake, had in late 2016 bagged the contract for supplying through the
MoD-owned Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) the naval version of the 3-D all-digital
LTR-25 L-band air/surface search radars for both the four Project 15B
guided-missile destroyers, and for the seven Project 17A guided-missile
frigates, as well as for the mid-life upgrade of the three Project 12 DDGs
(that will replace the THALES-BEL RAWL-02/PLN-517/LW-08 L-band air-search radars). Each
LTR-25 unit is composed of a primary radar integrated with a secondary radar
and an operation and power generation sub-systems. The LTR-25 is capable of
digital beam-forming, direct radio-frequency sampling, monopulse technique of
operation in elevation and azimuth, clutter-rejection, as well as ballistic
missile detection and tracking.
All installation and commissioning works at the Indian Naval Air Stations
is planned for completion by April 2022, and at Indian Air Force Stations by
December 2022. Eventually, more than 60 such PARs are due to be ordered by the MoD.
The offer by Data Patterns was adjudged as being superior to the one from ASTRA Microwave.
It has also developed pulse-Doppler weather radars in X and C bands,
as well as an X-band Imaging Monopulse RF seeker for the projected Brahmos-NG supersonic
multi-role cruise missile in cooperation by the DRDO’s with Hyderabad DRDL lab.
