HAL and BEL have signed an agreement for a search and track system for the SU-30MKI.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) signed a deal on Tuesday to co-develop and co-produce a long-range dual band Infra-Red Search and Track System (IRST) for the Su-30 MKI fighter plane.

As part of the ‘Make in India’ strategy, the contract was signed under the MAKE-II procedure of the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020.

“The proposed IRST system will be a high-end strategic technology product in the field of defence avionics, technically competitive to existing IRST systems in the global market, with features such as a television day camera, infrared and laser sensors in a single window for air-to-air and air-to-ground target tracking and localization,” according to the proposal. According to a HAL statement, “the system will improve the Indian Air Force’s air superiority.”

The contract was signed by Suneel Kumar Srivastava, general manager of HAL (Korwa), and Loyola Pedro Vianney G, general manager of BEL (Chennai).

“The collaboration of two defence PSUs on the development of technologically vital IRST gives Atmanirbhar Bharat a boost in the defence sector. This project also paves the way for future development of high-end strategic technology products from IRST for a variety of platforms in a worldwide competitive context,” HAL noted.