Gopalan Aerospace signed a joint venture with Omnipol Group, a partner of Czech government institutions and NATO in the field of defence and security, to integrate Passive Radars for the Indian Defence Industry in the border areas.

The agreement was formally signed by Mr. C Prabhakar, Director, Gopalan Aerospace and Podpera Jiri, President Omnipol Group at the Aero India 2023 at Bangalore.

Under the partnership, the companies will work closely to explore opportunities to develop Radar-based service applications in the Indian Defence Sector.

A statement from Gopalan Aerospace stated that the Passive Surveillance ESM Tracker (PET) VERA-NG is the most advanced system utilizing the multi-lateration Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) principle. “The unique system is designed for detection, localization, tracking and identification of the air, ground and naval targets as well as exceptional pulse and continuous wave signal analysis,” the statement mentioned.

According to Prabhakar, this partnership will likely be utilised as a means to develop the company’s own competencies in the area of passive detection. “The product is developed in India under the Make In India Policy of the government. Passive Radar has become a need for the country. It is the first passive Radar developed and manufactured in India under a Joint Venture with Omnipol,” he said.

Gopalan Aerospace has worked on radars and drones in their Bengaluru facility and has also received the ET Achievers award for Emerging Start-up of the Year.

Representing the Prague-based Omnipol Group, President Podpera Jiri said “we are excited about this collaboration with Gopalan Aerospace and are looking forward to work together for the Defence Industry”.

Vera-NG Passive Surveillance System

The Passive long-range reconnaissance and monitoring systems are designed for detection, identification and monitoring of air, ground and naval targets.

VERA-NG supports cross-border, long-term and long-range surveillance without alerting neighbouring nations. The system emits zero electromagnetic energy making it ‘invisible‘, i. e. it sees without being seen. It also provides strategic ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) information to collect, process and evaluate the ESM data for reference database.

System Parameters

• Frequency range- 50 MHz – 18 GHz
• Instantaneous bandwidth- 1,000 MHz
• Range- up to 400 km
• Instantaneous Field of View- 120º (Surveillance field of view 360º)
• Azimuth accuracy- 0.01º
• Tracking capability- 2D/3D
• Tracking capacity- 500 real time tracks Radar, SIF/IFF, ADS-B, DME/TACAN
• Processed signals (emitters), AIS, Data Links, Continuous Wave signals, jammers
• System composition- Stationary/deployable
• Target library capacity- 10,000 targets
• System interoperability- UFE (AST 248, 249), AST 34, 48, 62, XML (Spot report)
• Environmental conditions- STANAG 4370-A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3, C0, C1
• EMC- MIL-STD-461F
• Training- Full scale training provided by former military operators