AFVOA Newsletter 03 of 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 03 / 2020 Page 119 of 167 dollar! Shri Lakshminarayanan – (I believe it was) the Financial Advisor (FA), mentioned that this was a very huge amount. Further he added, that such equipment was under development in the DRDO and hence the CAS should wait for the indigenous radars rather than procure the same from abroad and save the scarce FE. The CAS was apparently hurt to the quick, and mentioned that he was no less patriotic than the FA. But he requested that his views on the subject be recorded. He said that his primary task as CAS was the defence of the skies from external aggressors. And if he had to effectively carry out the role as envisaged, then he required the EW radars whose qualitative requirements (QR) had already been spelt out. He would certainly prefer Indian equipment, but he wanted the radars to be in position by the end of the usual mid-year monsoon the next year. And he added that in case such EW radars were not in position by the due dates, then he should not be held responsible for defence of the skies! We must never forget why we have, and why we need our military. Our armed forces exist solely to ensure our nation is safe, so that each and every one of us can sleep soundly at night, knowing we have 'guardians at the gate.' Allen West Babu Jagjvan Ram ruled that the SA should confirm that the EW radars with the specifications as given out by the CAS could be delivered by DRDO by the specified time. And in case it was not possible, as the defence of the Nation was far more vital than a few pieces of silver, the FA should release even Rs 20 crores if the equipment so warranted. I went back to my office, checked with both the Electronics Research and Development Laboratory (LRDE) and the Defence Electronics and Research Laboratory (DLRL) as to the status of the projects regarding the said EW radars. Both of them confirmed that they were working on the radars required by the Air Force. However, in view of the process involved – which included, building the various modules, integrating them into a bread board model, testing, identifying a manufacturing agency, transferring the know-how to them, building and testing a prototype, testing the same and then building the working system – all this could not be done in the envisaged time-frame demanded by the CAS. Accordingly, the D of L sent a note to the SA and FE was released and the radars were imported. As planned, they were positioned along the Western borders in the stipulated time frame as spelt out by the Air Chief. When the neighbouring country sent in their aircraft during the first week of December 1971, they were identified and engaged before they could cause any damage. And as the saying goes, the rest is history.