Swordfish Long Range Tracking Radar


Swordfish is an Indian active electronically scanned array long-range tracking radar specifically developed to counter ballistic missile threat. It will be a part of the Indian Ballistic Missile Defence Programme. First testing of this radar was in March 2009. Main aim of the test was to validate the capabilities of the Swordfish Long Range Tracking Radar. "The missile to be hit will be fired from a longer distance than it was in the earlier test. DRDO tested whether the radar could track the incoming missile from that distance or not," said a member of the project. This radar is an acknowledged derivative of the Israeli Green Pine long range radar, which is the critical component of that country's Arrow missile defence system. However, it differs from the Israeli system as it employs Indian Transmit Receive modules, signal processing, computers and power supplies. It is also more powerful than the base Green Pine system and was developed to meet India's specific BMD needs.

Capabilities

In March 2009, India DRDO tested long-range capabilities of its Swordfish radar. More tests were conducted in 2009 to enhance the capabilities of AAD endo-atmospheric missile to intercept missiles at altitudes up to 15 km. If no issues crop up, then the tentative date for deployment is 2015. As of January 2019, Swordfish was able to detect over 10 successful missile interceptions that includes two exo-atmospheric hit-to-kill missions.