£954 mn. That covered development, 5 aircraft, & 8 ground stations.

I think the Brazilian R-99B was significantly cheaper, & the US JSTARS was certainly more expensive. The latter is based on a much larger aircraft.

Thanks. Thats quite expensive..the IAF is reportedly one of the near-term customers that IAI is trying to get interested in the Eitam and the Shavit ELINT platform. They’ll probably be looking at either the ASTOR or Shavit if they do find they need an ELINT platform to monitor their borders.

US offers the ASTOR system to India.

link

First Published: 16:04 IST(21/3/2010)
Last Updated: 16:06 IST(21/3/2010)

After a range of top fighter aircraft and other weapon systems, the US has now offered another sophisticated system to India, the Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR), whose capability has been described as “unmatched” by a former US navy official.

According to Admiral Walter F Doran, president Asia for Raytheon, Indian officials had already been briefed on “this latest radar, for highly effective 24-hour surveillance and target acquisition capability”, India Strategic magazine reported in its latest issue. The system is being operated now by the British Army and Royal Air Force (RAF) in Afghanistan with five ASTOR aircraft and eight ground stations.

Admiral Doran is quoted in the magazine as saying that Raytheon, a military technology giant, had also submitted a formal proposal to the Indian government. He declined to give details.

First deployed in 2008, ASTOR can even detect minor variations in surface levels, like digging and filling of earth at the same place, and draw conclusions about activity. The system consists of an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar on board the Bombardier Global Express ‘Sentinel’ business jet. Indian officials first visited the aircraft displayed at the Paris Air Show in June 2009 and have followed up with discussions.

Admiral Doran, a former US Navy 7th Fleet commander, said that “the capability on board the ASTOR was unmatched”, pointing out that although Raytheon did not make platforms, its combat systems were on board most of the US aircraft, ships, spacecraft and land vehicles. For instance, the AESA radar on board the Boeing F 18 Super Hornet, F 15 Eagle and P8 Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (for the US and Indian Navies) is built by Raytheon.

The company has also built an AESA radar for F 16s, should a country buying it make the choice in its favour.

So was the Mini-SAR, or the Miniaturized Synthetic Aperture Radar, on board India’s lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 which located ice on the polar surface of moon through high resolution imagery.

Raytheon provided the Mini-SAR to NASA, which gave it to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for its lunar mission as part of their cooperative venture. NASA later sent another mission with a higher resolution SAR camera.

Admiral Doran said that ASTOR flies high enough – 40,000 to 45,000 feet – to cover a large ground area, and to be beyond the range of most surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). It is also equipped with a self protection suite to put out flares and chaff to confuse and deflect any threatening missiles.

ASTOR’s main equipment includes a dual-mode SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) and Moving Target Indicator (SAR/MTI), part of the AESA system. The aircraft can fly for nine hours at a stretch.

There are three consoles for monitoring the ground, two for image analysts and one for the Airborne Mission Commander, besides the pilot and co-pilot. Data from the aircraft is fed to the ground stations from where action against hostile targets is initiated if required.

The US has already offered to India F 35 JSF, F 16 Super Viper, F 18 Super Hornet and P8I aircraft and weapon systems.

A few more words about it. It was a political decision after all. The air force was upset because they were planning and asking for a new fighter since 2007…

no way this president was going to go for an european solution. so the army swallowed its pride (my sources indicated that they wanted anything but used planes with a preference for eurofighters ) and instead of waiting another 5 years at least for a new president with no flyable planes now they made their reccomendation for this stop gap solution hoping for best after. problem is all the air force weapons are french or israeli (mica and pythons) and may have to be rewired or dropped … and we will have to pay for new us weapons. for the moment no news about the source of the planes israeli or us, i suppose us though

certainly a better solution monetarily than Eurofighters..I mean what threat level does Romania face to be able to justify a fighter that costs over $100 million apiece ? to say that the Romanian Air Force wanted Typhoons indicates that they weren’t being smart in their choice..either the Gripen NG or the MiG-35 would’ve been cheaper to acquire and possibly even operate. To my mind, there is no big benefit to the extra performance that a Typhoon gives, for a cash-strapped Air force that has no real threats.

BTW, Israel could easily integrate those F-16s with the Python-III. After all they fly them with these missiles themselves. Shouldn’t cost too much either since they’re not radar guided.

Straight from the goats mouth. Now let us put the matter to rest.

please desist from using such terms on a Pakistan Air Force thread. it may offend them.

Important to note that there is still some indecision on the platform of choice for the next batch of Phalcons. IAI is offering the Gulfstream jet in place of the IL-76.