The frontline aircraft of Indian Air Force Sukhoi-30MKI is often called a heavy air superiority aircraft despite the fact that Sukhoi-30 series aircraft was designed keeping in mind the various strategic roles of 21st century air warfare. Indian Air Force Sukhoi-30MKI aircraft apart from air superiority role is capable enough to perform a wide variety of strategic roles that includes “Strategic Reconnaissance”.
Strategic Reconnaissance ‘SR’ missions as described by spacewar are reconnaissance and surveillance actions conducted as a special operation in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments to collect or verify information of strategic or operational significance, employing military capabilities not normally found in conventional forces. These actions provide an additive capability for commanders and supplement other conventional reconnaissance and surveillance actions. Activities within SR include the following:
- Environmental Reconnaissance
- Armed Reconnaissance
- Target & Threat Assessment
- Post Strike Reconnaissance
Even with today’s sophisticated long-range sensors and overhead platforms, some information can be obtained only by visual observation or other collection methods in the target area. SOF’s highly developed capabilities of gaining access to denied and hostile areas, worldwide communications, and specialized aircraft and sensors enable SR against targets inaccessible to other forces or assets.
Israeli Elta EL/M-2060P SAR/GMTI Pod:
Indian Air Force deploys Israeli IAI Elta EL/M-2060P SAR Pod integrated with some modified Sukhoi-30MKI aircraft to perform the SR missions both in eastern and western sectors border along China and Pakistan. As recounted by Spy Flight IAI EL/M-2060P is a proven high performance all-weather Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) with real-time Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) reconnaissance system. The complete system consists of the SAR/GMTI and a C, X or Ku band data link mounted in a 590 kg pod that can be carried externally on a variety of fighter aircraft, together with a Ground Exploitation Station (GES).
The EL/M-2060P is capable of producing images of near photographic quality in all weathers, day or night and transmitting the images in near real-time via the data link over a range of over 250 miles to the GES. The SAR/GMTI can operate in either STRIP Mode, for coverage of very large areas at stand-off ranges, or SPOT mode to obtain a high resolution image of an area of interest. The data is also recorded on-board allowing it to also be interpreted once the aircraft has landed. The GES can be installed in either a fixed or transportable location and is equipped with a variety of workstations to allow rapid data reporting and exploitation. According the spyflight, Indian Air Force has customized the recce pod as per IAF requirements and the pod incorporate an electro/optical sensor Elop provided by Elbit System.
Elop system equipped with SAR pod provide the aircraft from the multiple threats when flying in hostile adversary territory. Specifications of the SAR pod as mentioned in official IAI website
- Range over 170 km
- All-weather reconnaissance
- Stand-off or Stand-in (penetration) missions
- Real-time, on-board SAR imagery generation
- Long ranges and wide area coverage
- Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI)
- Efficient imagery exploitation and reporting
- Flexible mission planning, management and real-time mission re-tasking
- Self-sufficient autonomous system
- Straightforward installation on combat aircraft on existing hard points
- Minimal pilot workload for system operation
- Suited to operation and maintenance by the fighter squadron
Equipped with this sophisticated pods IAF Sukhoi-30MKI’s have the capability to look up to 300 km deep into enemy territory and can provide electronic intelligence to Indian Air Force. IAI EL/M-2060P is designed to provide integrated electronic support measure/electronic intelligence (ESM/ELINT) capabilities to its EL/M-2060 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) reconnaissance pod.
The SAR pod delivers all-weather, stand-off SAR strip or spot imagery, with an option of ground moving target indication overlay. The imagery is moves in real time to a ground exploitation station enhancing the ground strike capabilities of Su-30MKI’s as well as detection of ground targets and identification capabilities. The addition of advanced sophisticated equipment’s from western nations and Israel turn Su-30 into MKI standard, which is the most capable and advanced variant of Flanker being flown by IAF.
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