Strengthening India’s indigenous defence capabilities under the Make-in-India initiative, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) inked a major capital acquisition contract with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) for the procurement of two Mountain Radars, including associated equipment and required infrastructure for the Indian Air Force, at a cost of around Rs 1,950 crore.
The development comes amid the US-Israel war with Iran, which underscores the importance of the radars, which detect enemy air strikes. The ongoing war underscores that the future war will be fought in the air with drones and missiles. Hence, India focuses on boosting air defence.
The contract, under the Buy (Indian-Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured) category, was signed in the presence of senior officials of MoD & BEL in New Delhi on March 31, 2026.
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What Is Mountain Radar?
This Mountain Radar is indigenously designed and developed by Electronics & Radar Development Establishment of DRDO and will be manufactured by BEL. The installation and commissioning of these radars will boost the country’s air defence and strengthen national security. The procurement will also reduce the dependency on foreign equipment.
Weapon Locating Radar Mountain Version (WLR-M)
Weapon Locating Radar is a mobile radar system designed for automatic first-round location of artillery weapons. In-flight track data is used to back-track hostile projectile trajectories to the firing point. Also, friendly projectile trajectories can be tracked for registration of friendly fire. The main types of weapons against which the system is designed are mortars, rocket launchers and guns, which operate in the high-angle or low-angle firing mode. The mountain version is compact and suitable even for mountainous terrain.
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Key Features:
- Detection of mortars shells and rockets
- Tracking of projectiles
- Classification of projectile/non-projectile targets and rejection of unwanted targets like birds, clutter and aircrafts.
- Trajectory Estimation & Launch/Impact Point Extrapolation(LP/IP)
- Automatic Height Correction for LP & IP
- Storing and displaying the trajectory LP & IP data
- Communication with higher echelons (BSS)
- Adjustment of Fire Mode for Detection Of Own Artillery Firing (DOOAF)