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IAF orders new Forward Air Controllers

BANGALORE: In a move that will dramatically improve its operational capabilities by day and night the Indian Air Force (IAF) has placed an order for a few dozen state-of-the-art long range Forward Air Controllers (FACs). To be installed at the IAF’s forward airfields in the Western Sector, the FACs are ground based systems that can accurately pinpoint a target.

Consisting primarily of a laser range finder, night sight and a goniometer (an instrument that measures angles) the FAC accurately provides the target’s co-ordinates to a fighter aircraft or observation post which can then engage the target. Costing upwards of $5 million, the FACs will be delivered and installed in phases starting from next June. For the IAF, given the geographical and strategic location of its forward airfields it is paramount not only to accurately identify and fix the ‘grid reference’ (location) of various targets in relation to a reference point or line, but also aid in an aircraft’s safe landing, especially at night.

The FACs are to be supplied by the Bangalore-based defence contractor Alpha Design Technologies

Speaking to The Hindu, Alpha Design Technologies chairman and managing director Col. (retd.) H.S. Shankar said they won the contract after a “prolonged and tough evaluation and field trial process” from two other competitors, defence public sector enterprise Bharat Electronics and Israel’s Elbit Systems Electro-Optics.

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