AEW&C MK-II contracts were signed in New Delhi on Wednesday, bringing two industry partners into the DRDO programme that will build India's next generation of airborne early warning aircraft. The Centre for Air Borne Systems, the DRDO laboratory leading the work, signed one agreement with AI Engineering Services Limited and a second with Adani Defence Systems and Technologies.

The split across the two AEW&C MK-II contracts is deliberate. One is about the aircraft. The other is about what goes inside it.


What the two AEW&C MK-II contracts cover

AI Engineering Services Limited, based in New Delhi, will convert six A321 aircraft from commercial to green configuration, the stripped-down state in which an airliner is handed over as a bare, mission-ready airframe before radar and electronics go in. That conversion feeds straight into the development and production phase of the MK-II programme.

Adani Defence Systems and Technologies, of Ahmedabad, comes in under a separate contract as Development Cum Production Partner for the mission systems. That is the sensor suite, the communications fit and the command-and-control package that separate an aircraft from an early warning platform.

Director CABS signed alongside the CEO of AIESL and the Head of Airborne Platform at Adani Defence. Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh watched over the signing, the Ministry of Defence said in its statement. He has held additional charge as Secretary of the Department of Defence R&D and Chairman of the DRDO since the end of May, after Dr Samir V Kamat's tenure closed.

How the work is divided

CABS carries responsibility for integrating the mission systems onto the modified platform, with Adani Defence supporting as the production partner. The airframe comes from Airbus Defence and Space as the original equipment manufacturer.

Testing and certification

Flight testing will be run by CABS and Adani Defence together with the Indian Air Force. Certification then rests with two airworthiness agencies, the Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification and the Directorate General of Aeronautical Quality Assurance, both of which must sign off before the aircraft enters service.

A step up from the Netra

CABS is the same laboratory that took the Netra AEW&C to Final Operational Clearance, India's first indigenous early warning aircraft, built on the Embraer EMB-145. The MK-II is the larger successor. Where the Netra fleet flies a regional jet, the MK-II moves to the roomier A321, which buys space, power and endurance for a heavier sensor load. Anyone following the programme's path from its 2017 start will know the method by now: prove it small, then scale.

On MK-II, CABS is the nodal laboratory. The system it is building is meant to deliver longer endurance, wider surveillance reach, secure communications, sharper situational awareness and stronger command and control. The stated aim is to firm up air defence and to track and take down threats at ranges the current fleet cannot reach.

Where Adani Defence fits

The mission-systems role adds an airborne surveillance line to an Adani Defence portfolio that already runs across drones, missiles, small arms and ammunition. The group recently broke ground on a private missile ecosystem in Madhya Pradesh, and the AEW&C work places it inside a flagship DRDO programme rather than on its margins. The government cast both contracts as part of its wider drive for self-reliance in defence, pulling private industry deeper into research, development and manufacturing.