Northrop Grumman is making progress with its proposal to sell E-2D Advanced Hawkeye surveillance aircraft to the Indian Navy, following a recent tie up with HAL. Photo Credit: Northrop GrummanOctober 20, 2009, (Sawf News) - Northrop Grumman is making progress with its proposal to sell E-2D Advanced Hawkeye surveillance aircraft to the Indian Navy, following a recent tie up with HAL.
According to AW&ST, Northrop gave an 8 hour presentation on the latest version of the venerable Hawkeye to Indian Navy officials in August 2009. The presentation followed a request for information from the Indian Navy in 2008.
Northrop has already obtained export authorization for the sale of the aircraft to India.
The aircraft will fulfill Indian Navy's requirement for airborne early warning and battle management command and control.
The E-2D has a limited endurance and is designed to operate from aircraft carriers using a steam catapult, something Indian carriers are not equipped with. Both, the currently operational but aging INS Viraat, and the on-order-since-very-long INS Vikramaditya are fitted with ski jumps, not steam catapults, to assist take offs. The E-2D cannot be based on either of the two carriers.
The Indian Navy has asked for a shore based version of the E-2D with enhanced endurance. Lockheed has signed a MOU with HAL to replace E-2D's folding wings, required for carrier operations, with wet non folding wings that can carry additional fuel, allowing the aircraft to stay airborne for up to 8 hours without refueling.
The E-2D is equipped with the newly developed AN/APY-9 radar which has a good surface surveillance capability.
India currently relies on the ageing Soviet era Tu-142M to monitor its 7,500 km. (4,660 mi.). The use of E-2D will increase Indian Navy's surveillance capability by 300%. The limited range of aircraft, and the fact that it cannot be based on a carrier does not pose a serious constraint to the Indian Navy, which is not a blue water navy like the US but a regional force.
The E-2D has a lot of interoperability with NATO communication system, something that would have been of little interest to the Indian Navy 10 years back. However, in view of the increasingly closer military relations between the US and India since then, navies of both the nations are keen to leverage interoperability to keep tabs on the threats in the Indian Ocean region.
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