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First fully modified aircraft for indigenous Airborne Early Warning and Control Systems landed on Indian soil at Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS), Bangalore, a DRDO laboratory) at HAL airport on yesterday. Aircraft was received by enthusiastic crowd from CABS, its work centers, Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC) and IAF members. The aircraft and the flight crew was received by Dr Christopher, Program Director and Dr K Tamil Mani, Chief Executive, CEMILAC. The aircraft and its crew from Indian Air Force and M/s Embraer were given a hearty welcome with water cannon.
The acceptance of the Aircraft was completed over a period of 15 days at Embraer Facilities in Brazil, by a team from CABS, its work centres, CEMILAC, DGAQA & IAF.
The Aircraft was flagged off from M/s Embraer, Brazil on 17 Aug 2012 by Shri G Elangovan, Chief Controller R&D, Dr S Christopher, Programme Director, Mr K Tamil Mani, Chief Executive, CEMILAC and team members and was flown across multiple continents to arrive in India. The Aircraft ferried with several mission system external components of DRDO including the Active Electronically scanned Array Antenna with passive electronics fitted on the Aircraft.
The arrival of this Aircraft marks the beginning of another phase of journey leading to the next major milestone of integration of the DRDO developed mission system, which will be followed by development flight trials in India beginning of 2013.
It may be noted that this is the first Aircraft delivered by M/s Embraer for which the contract was signed in 2008. The next Aircraft is expected to arrive in December 2012.