Uttam () is a solid-state

gallium arsenide Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a III-V direct band gap semiconductor with a Zincblende (crystal structure), zinc blende crystal structure. Gallium arsenide is used in the manufacture of devices such as microwave frequency integrated circuits, monoli ...

(GaAs) based AESA

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

under development by the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE), a laboratory of the Indian

Defence Research and Development Organisation The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is an agency under the Department of Defence Research and Development in the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India, charged with the military's research and development, head ...

(DRDO). It is a

low probability of intercept radar A low-probability-of-intercept radar (LPIR) is a radar employing measures to avoid detection by passive radar detection equipment (such as a radar warning receiver (RWR), or electronic support receiver) while it is searching for a target or enga ...

. It is a

liquid cooled Liquid cooling refers to cooling by means of the convection or circulation of a liquid. Examples of liquid cooling technologies include: * Cooling by convection or circulation of coolant, including water cooling * Liquid cooling and ventilatio ...

AESA radar featuring quad band modules that can be stacked to form a larger unit. The Uttam Mk-1 has a total of 912 TRMs.

Development

The radar development began in 2012 and its full-scale model was displayed at the 2017

Aero India Aero India is a biennial air show and aviation exhibition held in Bengaluru, India, at the Yelahanka Air Force Station. It is organised by the Defence Exhibition Organisation, Ministry of Defence. Organisers The Ministry of Defence, Indian A ...

air show and aviation exhibition. People who worked for

DRDO AEW&CS The DRDO Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&CS) is a project of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation to develop an airborne early warning and control system for the Indian Air Force. It is also referred to as NETRA Ai ...

's main radar and Maritime Patrol Radar were part of the project team. A fully functional

active electronically scanned array An active electronically scanned array (AESA) is a type of phased array antenna, which is a computer-controlled antenna array in which the beam of radio waves can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving the a ...

(AESA)

prototype was unveiled at Aero India 2019, the prototype was mounted inside the glass nose of a

HAL Tejas The HAL Tejas () is an Indian single-engine, delta wing, Multirole combat aircraft, multirole Military aircraft, combat aircraft designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for t ...

prototype.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian public sector aerospace and defence company, headquartered in Bengaluru. Established on 23 December 1940, HAL is one of the oldest and largest aerospace and defence manufacturers in the world. H ...

is the lead integrator and

Bharat Electronics Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) is an Indian public sector aerospace and defence electronics company, headquartered in Bangalore. It primarily manufactures advanced electronic products for ground and aerospace applications. BEL is one of sixt ...

is major supplier of subsystems. As per Project director D Seshagiri of Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE), ''Uttam'' AESA radar is 95% indigenous, with only one imported subsystem. The National Flight Testing Centre had evaluated the radar and cleared it after performance tests. The integration problem of Astra BVRAAM due to older generation of radars will also be solved by ''Uttam''. During Aero India 2021, there was a licensing agreements for

technology transfer Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform invent ...

from DRDO to

for manufacturing and integration of the ''Uttam'' in the Mark 1A variant of the HAL Tejas. Uttam AESA Radar was authorized for export from 2023.

Testing

As of 2021, three units were in various phases of testing. The ''Uttam'' radar has completed 230 hours of airborne testing onboard two Tejas fighter jets (LSP2 and LSP3) and on an executive jet; presumed to be DRDO's

Dornier 228 The Dornier 228 is a twin-turboprop STOL utility aircraft, designed and first manufactured by Dornier GmbH (later DASA Dornier, Fairchild-Dornier) from 1981 until 1998. 245 were built in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. In 1983, Hindustan Aeronautics ...

"Nabhratna" used as a flying test bed by LRDE. Once fully validated and certified, it is planned is to introduce the radar in later batches of Tejas Mark 1A aircraft. The ''Uttam'' radar will be used with DRDO's Unified Electronic Warfare suite.

Indian Air Force Test Pilot School The Indian Air Force Test Pilot School is a unit of the Indian Air Force (IAF) that evaluates aircraft and systems for induction into user organisations. Most new aircraft types and major airborne systems must have ASTE's stamp of approval to b ...

would start final demonstration trial of ''Uttam'' AESA radar from December 2021 and if successful will be sent for serial production. LRDE has completed 250 hours of performance testing on two Tejas fighters as well as

Hawker 800 The Hawker 800 is a mid-size twinjet corporate aircraft. It is a development of the British Aerospace 125, and was assembled by Hawker Beechcraft. Development In April 1981, the British Aerospace (BAe) board sanctioned the programme to improve t ...

executive jet. As of April 2024, the radar has completed 125 test sorties onboard Tejas Mk 1 prototypes as per ADA Director Dr Jitendra Jadhav. The radar has cleared testing Air to Air (A2A) and Air to Ground (A2G) modes while few more tests are yet to be conducted. The performance of the radar is on par with other proven designs like

EL/M-2052 The Elta 2052 or EL/M-2052 is an X-Band airborne Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) fire control radar (FCR) designed for fighter aircraft to support air-to-air combat and strike missions. Currently, it is fitted in the SEPECAT Jaguar as ...

Features

*Full

solid-state (electronics) Solid-state electronics are semiconductor electronics: electronic equipment that use semiconductor devices such as transistors, diodes and integrated circuits (ICs). The term is also used as an adjective for devices in which semiconductor ele ...

radar, based on

GaAs Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a III-V direct band gap semiconductor with a zinc blende crystal structure. Gallium arsenide is used in the manufacture of devices such as microwave frequency integrated circuits, monolithic microwave integrated circui ...

*High MTBCF (redundancy) *Range: >100 km *Multi Target Tracking (50 Targets), Priority Tracking (4 Targets). *Simultaneous operation modes. *Solid-state, active phased array technology *

Pulse Doppler A pulse-Doppler radar is a radar system that determines the range to a target using pulse-timing techniques, and uses the Doppler effect of the returned signal to determine the target object's velocity. It combines the features of pulse radars and ...

, all aspect, shoot down capabilities *Simultaneous multi-target tracking and engaging *Simultaneous multi-mode operation *High

ECM ECM may refer to the following: Economics and commerce * Engineering change management * Equity capital markets * Error correction model, an econometric model * European Common Market Mathematics * Lenstra's Elliptic curve method for factor ...

immunity *Ultra-low side-lobe antenna *Flexible interfaces allowing scalable design. *Modular hardware and software *Fast-beam agile system *Quad band TRM modules pack *High mission reliability (built with redundancy) *

IFF In logic and related fields such as mathematics and philosophy, "if and only if" (often shortened as "iff") is paraphrased by the biconditional, a logical connective between statements. The biconditional is true in two cases, where either both ...

modes. * C-band

LOS LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

Ku band The Ku band () is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18 gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under" (originally ), because it is the lower part of the original NATO K ban ...

satcom link.

Operational Modes

''Uttam'' AESA radar has a total of 18 modes in Air to Air, Air to Ground and Air to Sea roles. The modes have been validated on-board a business jet and further proofing is being done on

to validate the same on supersonic platform. * Air-to-Air ** TWS/Multi-target detection and tracking ** Multi-target ACM ** High resolution raid assessment * Air-to-Ground ** High resolution imaging ( SAR Mode) ** High resolution tracking ( SAR Mode) ** AGR – Air-to-Ground Ranging ** RBM – Real Beam Map ** DBS –

Doppler Beam Sharpening Synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) is a form of radar that is used to create two-dimensional images or three-dimensional reconstructions of objects, such as landscapes. SAR uses the motion of the radar antenna over a target region to provide fine ...

** GMTI on RBM, SAR ** Weather * Air-to-Sea ** High resolution imaging ( SAR Mode) ** High resolution tracking ( SAR Mode) ** Sea search and multi-target tracking ** RS and

ISAR The Isar () is a river in Austria and in Bavaria, Germany. Its source is in the Karwendel mountain range of the Alps. The Isar river enters Germany near Mittenwald and flows through Krün, Wallgau, Bad Tölz, Munich, and Landshut before reaching ...

classification modes.

Virupaaksha

''Virupaaksha'' radar is an advanced version of the ''Uttam Mk-II'' radar. The radar under development will replace the current N011M Bars radar being used onboard the

Sukhoi Su-30MKI The Sukhoi Su-30MKI (NATO reporting name: Flanker-H) is a two-seater, twinjet Multirole combat aircraft, multirole air superiority fighter developed by Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi and built under licence by India's Hindustan Aeronautic ...

after the Super Sukhoi upgrade program. Virupaaksha weighs half as much as the N011M Bars. The LRDE was working on the project, but got approval in October 2024. LRDE plans to set up "assembly jigs" to begin ground testing soon. These will be delivered within 16 weeks of the contract’s approval. The assembly will be completed within 15 weeks while the last week will be reserved for acceptance testing. ''Virupaaksha'' utilises

Gallium Nitride Gallium nitride () is a binary III/ V direct bandgap semiconductor commonly used in blue light-emitting diodes since the 1990s. The compound is a very hard material that has a Wurtzite crystal structure. Its wide band gap of 3.4 eV af ...

(GaN) technology with improved radar operational characteristics than

(GaAs) used by earlier variants. GaN provides better power output, enhanced thermal efficiency, wider

bandwidth Bandwidth commonly refers to: * Bandwidth (signal processing) or ''analog bandwidth'', ''frequency bandwidth'', or ''radio bandwidth'', a measure of the width of a frequency range * Bandwidth (computing), the rate of data transfer, bit rate or thr ...

of operation, and a longer lifespan compared to earlier variants. The radar incorporates the quad transmit-receive modules (T/R modules) similar to Uttam but has a more densely packed configuration and has around 2400 modules based on GaN based planks. The plank configuration eases maintenance operations. Reportedly, the radar succeeded to track 64 to 100 aerial targets simultaneously during trials and offers at least 1.7 times increased head-on search range over the 140 km-range N011M Bars radar. It features advanced

electronic counter-countermeasures Electronic counter-countermeasures (ECCM) is a part of electronic warfare which includes a variety of practices which attempt to reduce or eliminate the effect of electronic countermeasures (ECM) on electronic sensors aboard vehicles, ships and a ...

(ECCM). The IAF plans to upgrade 84 Su-30MKI in the first phase from 2026. The Virupaksha radar operates in the

S-band The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the convention ...

frequency range, and can detect and track a wide range of targets like aircraft, helicopters, drones, and even

ballistic missiles A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are powered only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) typica ...

. It has a reported head-on search range of over 400 km, though the value is officially classified. In air-to-air attack mode, Virupaaksha can maneuver, control, and direct six missiles simultaneously towards the target.

Applications

The fighter jet platforms that have been integrated with ''Uttam'' radar or are planned to be integrated are as follows:

Gallery

References

{{Reflist Aircraft radars Military radars of India Defence Research and Development Organisation