Airports - Growing Collaborations

Raytheon India perceives that in the coming years there are opportunities in four different areas of business in India. These are military modernisation across the range of military services and platforms, air and missile defence, air traffic management systems and homeland security solutions.

As per William Blair, President, Raytheon India, the company perceives that in the coming years there are opportunities in four different areas of business in India. These are military modernisation across the range of military services and platforms, air and missile defence, air traffic management systems and homeland security solutions. Raytheon has plans to collaborate in all these areas and assist India to emerge as an aerospace power in the Asian region.

Raytheon has bagged a turnkey contract from Strategic Electronics Division (SED), a subsidiary of Tata Power, for supplying and commissioning automated air traffic management systems to the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian Navy. This contract is a part of the IAF’s ongoing project for Modernisation of Airfield Infrastructure (MAFI). Tata Power is the prime contractor of this two-phase project, which involves 30 IAF airbases starting with Bhatinda and includes eight key airfields along the Sino-Indian border such as Chabua, Tezpur and Hashimara. One airbase of the Indian Navy will also be upgraded as part of the project.

For the MAFI project, Raytheon Network Centric Systems will supply a variant of its AutoTrac family of air traffic management systems. The first phase of the air field modernisation programme is scheduled to be completed within three years. The IAF is also likely to invite Tata Power to take up another 28 airfields for improvement in the second phase. A team of engineers from Tata Power SED has been trained at Raytheon’s Network Centric Systems at Marlborough, near Boston in Massachusetts.

Raytheon had also won and completed a contract to upgrade its Auto Trac II automation system under the air traffic management at Delhi and Mumbai airports to its latest next generation Auto Trac III. Raytheon was also competitively selected in 2010 to replace the existing non-Raytheon system for the Chennai Flight Information Region. It was also informed that Raytheon’s Geosynchronous Augmented Navigation system is now fully operational.

At Defexpo 2012 in New Delhi, Raytheon with Tata Power Strategic Electronics Division showcased its air traffic management system for the MAFI programme. known as AutoTrac, this system provides Raytheon’s state-of-the-art integrated surveillance and flight data processing combined with processing and display equipment. The plan includes installation of highly advanced air traffic management systems besides Category II airfield lighting systems and high technology navigational aids that will enable flying operations at night and in adverse weather. The modernisation is to include supply, testing, integration and sustenance of instrument landing system, distance measuring equipments, digital VHF omni range, tactical air navigation system, air traffic management system and CAT II airfield lighting system. According to Saranjit S. Aujla, Business Development Director, Air Traffic Management and Security Solutions, Raytheon’s Network Centric Systems, the air traffic control system that the company is installing at the IAF airfields will be similar to AutoTrac III. It will be possible to integrate the civil and military air space with the technology capable of handling security related issues. According to the Indian Ministry of Defence, modernisation of the IAF airbases by Raytheon and Tata Power SED will be followed by MAFI Phase II contract for refurbishing another 28 airbases. The decision on the launch of Phase II however is yet to be announced.