MoD and BEL officials during the signing of the radar deal. (Photo: MoD)
New Delhi: The Ministry of Defence signed a contract worth approximately ₹1,950 crore with Bharat Electronics Limited on Monday for the procurement of two mountain radars for the Indian Air Force, along with associated equipment and supporting infrastructure.
The agreement, inked in New Delhi in the presence of senior officials from both the ministry and BEL, falls under the Buy (Indian-Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured) – or IDDM – category, which mandates a higher degree of domestic content and technology ownership than standard indigenization procurement routes.
The mountain radar system has been designed and developed by the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment, a Bengaluru-based laboratory under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). BEL, the state-owned defence electronics major headquartered in Bengaluru, will be responsible for manufacturing the systems.
The IDDM category is considered the most preferred procurement route under India’s defence acquisition procedure, requiring that the product be both designed domestically and manufactured with a minimum indigenous content of 50 per cent. Contracts under this category are awarded only to Indian vendors, and foreign original equipment manufacturers cannot participate directly.
Mountain radars are specialized surveillance systems designed to operate in high-altitude terrain, where conventional ground-based radars face significant limitations owing to signal obstruction by elevated landmass. They are typically deployed to monitor low-flying aircraft, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles in mountainous border regions – making them particularly relevant to India’s northern and northeastern frontiers, which have seen heightened military activity following the prolonged standoff with China along the line of actual control (LAC) since 2020.
The Air Force currently relies on a mix of legacy systems and imported radars to cover high-altitude surveillance gaps. The induction of indigenously developed mountain radars is expected to partially address those gaps while reducing dependence on foreign suppliers for a category of equipment that is operationally critical and logistically difficult to maintain in forward areas.
BEL, listed on Indian stock exchanges and operating under the ministry of defence, has in recent years significantly expanded its radar and electronic warfare portfolio. The company has been a manufacturing partner for several DRDO-developed systems, including the Rohini medium-power radar and components for the Akash surface-to-air missile system.
The contract was signed days before the close of the financial year 2025-26, continuing a pattern in which the ministry of defence accelerates capital acquisition signings in the final weeks of March to meet annual procurement targets. The ministry has signed defence contracts worth several thousand crore rupees in the last fortnight of March alone.
No timeline for delivery or induction has been made public. The ministry’s press statement did not specify the locations where the radars would be deployed, which is standard practice for operationally sensitive acquisitions.
