Six Pakistani F-16s streak across the border on a pre-emptive strike against Indian air bases in the western sector. But they're shot down in a hail of air-to-air missiles from three MiG-21s. Having tracked the aircraft as soon as they took off, an IAF IL-76 AEW from high above had acted in time, alerting patrolling IAF fighters who were waiting for the intruders to walk into their trap.

This war game scenario illustrates the potential of the IAF's newest force-multiplier, the Phalcon airborne early warning and control (AEW & C) radar. But until the US State Department cleared its sale this week during Defence Minister George Fernandes' visit, India's chances of acquiring this system seemed remote.

Strange, considering the Israeli radar isn't even made in the US. But given this radar's phenomenal capabilities---it can detect enemy aircraft 400 km away and simultaneously track 100 targets---its export always raises eyebrows in the Pentagon. Two years ago, it halted the sale of the sophisticated airborne radar to China. Israel had to dismantle the radar from the Chinese aircraft it was being fitted on after the US feared its capabilities could have seriously offset the Taiwanese air force's technological edge and even used against US forces in the region.

In the subcontinent, the Phalcon, an acronym for Phased-Array L-Band Conformal radar, will possibly be the most significant force-multiplier since the advent of missile-armed jet fighters. The radars will be retrofitted on IAF cargo aircraft like the IL-76 which have a 5,000-km range and can remain airborne for nearly six hours. The Phalcon's airborne command and control centre can use its powerful phased array radar and signal detection sensors to instantaneously knit a complex picture of the entire air battle and maintain air superiority over the combat area.

To warn of intrusion by hostile aircraft, the IAF currently maintains dozens of radars which form a sensory barrier along the borders. But ground-based radars have an inherent problem called line of sight caused by the curvature of the earth-they cannot look beyond a distance of 50 km.

At this distance, IAF radars have a warning time of just over two minutes to detect enemy aircraft and alert its defences. The solution, as thought of by the US Air Force in the 1970s, was to elevate the radar or fit it on an aircraft. Thus was born the first AEW & C aircraft, the Boeing E-3 Sentry, popularly called AWACS with their distinctive top mounted rotating radomes. Airborne radars like these which have a range of hundreds of kilometres, can look deep into enemy territory, and in the case of the IAF, increase the warning time to nearly half an hour. In addition, they use an identification friend or foe sub-system which can detect, classify and track enemy and friendly aircraft in a cluttered sky. It can direct its aircraft to intercept enemy aircraft—during the 1991 Gulf War, AWACS assisted in 38 of the 40 Iraqi aircraft downed in air-to-air combat.

Similarly in an air battle over the subcontinent, Phalcon-equipped aircraft can call in interception missions by high performance IAF fighter aircraft like the Mirage-2000 and MiG-29, which had to earlier rely upon ground-based radars. They can then strike at unsuspecting enemy fighters before they can fire their weapons. In addition, the Phalcon can also track cruise missiles and ships.

The Indian Air Force, which perceived huge gaps in its air defence network, has been been shopping for an AEW system for over a decade. Its efforts to acquire it received a setback when the DRDO's prototype for an indigenous airborne surveillance platform crashed. A leased Russian AEW platform failed to impress the air force which began talks with Israel for three Phalcon radar systems worth an estimated $1 billion.

The use of this force-multiplier is not merely the Indo-Pak border. "It could be used on energy routes between the Straits of Hormuz and the South China Sea as well,'' says retired Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak, Deputy Director, IDSA. A safeguard for India's security in the wider term.