After key role in Operation Sindoor, Army’s vintage air defence guns to have drone-specific radar

The Army’s legacy L-70 anti-aircraft guns — that played a key role in shooting down Pakistani drones during Operation Sindoor in May this year — are in for a significant upgrade with a move to retrofit them with fire control radars that specialise in detecting small drones.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is procuring Air Defence Fire Control Radar-Drone Detector that is specifically designed to detect very small flying objects. The 40 mm single barrel L-70, though upgraded over the years, uses electro-optical systems, thermal imagers and data from air defence networks to target hostile platforms.

The Army Air Defence (AAD), a separate combat arm, is mandated to provide terminal all weather air defence protection to the nominated high value assets in the Tactical Battle Area and rear areas.

The threat to these assets from hostile aerial platforms has been constantly evolving and the threat manifestation has transitioned from fighter aircrafts and helicopters to low flying, electrically operated drones having very low radar cross section (RCS) and infrared (lR) signatures, as has been observed from recent conflicts in Russia-Ukraine, lsrael-Hamas and lndia-Pakistan, a request for information (RFI) issued by the MoD on August 1 states.

“During Operation Sindoor, our adversary on the Western Front relied mostly on drones and swarm drones not only for surveillance but also to cause damage to civil as well as defence installations,” the RFI points out.

Air Defence guns to include L-70, ZU-2B and Schilka weapon systems, having high rate of fire and using smart ammunition performed exceptionally well to ensure cost effective neutralization of these threats, thereby ensuring minimal damage to the protected assets, according to the document.

“In order to further enhance the potential of L-70 guns, there is a need for fire control radar (FCR) capable of detecting, identifying, classifying and controlling the fire of weapon systems to neutralise the smallest of the surveillance and attack drones,” the RFI adds.

The FCR is visualised to comprise of a search radar, track radar, fire control system, an electro optical fire control system (EOFCS), laser range finder, identification of friend or foe system and a power supply unit.

The search radar should provide track-while-scan capability of up to 25 targets. The radar is required to be light weight, mounted on a single light 4x4 vehicle and be capable of controlling the fire of a minimum of two air defence guns.

The FCS will receive target information from the search radar, track radar and EOFCS and will simultaneously carry out ballistic computation and provide appropriate firing solutions to the gun systems. The target information will also be transmitted to the Very Short Range Air Defence System (VSHORADS) and shoulder launched Air Defence Missile System.

Over the last few years, Bharat Electronics Limited upgraded the L-70 guns with electric drives to replace the mechanical systems, electro-optical sensors and fire control computers that also enabled them to be integrated into the air defence and anti-drone networks. Real-time data fusion enabled these systems to receive inputs from surveillance radars allowing rapid orientation and engagement. The Army has a large number of L-70 guns.