New Delhi: Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) have signed a contract for co-development and co-production of Long-Range Dual-Band Infra-Red Search and Track System (IRST) for Su-30 MKI on Tuesday under the MAKE-II procedure of Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020, as part of the 'Make in India' initiative.

The proposed IRST system will be a high-end strategic technology product in the field of defence avionics and technically competitive to existing IRST systems in the global market with features of Television Day Camera, Infrared & LASER sensors in a single window for air to air and air to ground target tracking and localization. The system will enhance the Indian Air Force's air superiority.

HAL's General Manager (Korwa) Suneel Kumar Srivastava and BEL's General Manager (Chennai) Loyola Pedro Vianney G signed the contract. HAL's Director (Engineering and R&D) Arup Chatterjee and BEL's Director MV Rajasekhar were present on the occasion.

The joining hands of two defence PSUs for the development of technologically critical IRST give impetus to "Atmanirbhar Bharat" in the defence sector. This initiative also opens the future path in the field of indigenous defence manufacturing for the development of high-end strategic technology products of IRST for various platforms in the global competitive environment.

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