New Delhi: As part of its exercise to upgrade its fleet of its Russian-origin Su-30MKI combat aircraft, the Indian Air Force is planning to equip them with an indigenous advanced radar named ‘Virupaaksha’.

The Indian Air Force is working on the upgrade programme of the Su-30MKI fleet under a package worth over Rs 65,000 crore where 84 planes would be upgraded indigenously with advanced made in India radars and weapon systems.

“The Virupaaksha is an advanced radar being developed indigenously. This would be a strong push to the indigenisation process in military sector,” media reports said quoting defence officials. Virupaaksha is one of the names of god Mahadev worshipped by Hindus living across the world.

The Indian Air Force has already decided to replace the Israeli radar on the Tejas MK-1A fighter jet with the indigenous Uttam Active Electronically Scanned Array radar along with the Angad electronic warfare suite.

The Su-30 fighter jets are the mainstay of Indian Air Force with 260 of them already in service. The jets have been inducted in different batches and now form around 50 per cent of the fighter fleet. The Su-30MKI fleet upgrade plan is also seen by the Indian Air Force as an opportunity for exports as many countries in the south east Asia and Africa operate the plane and can use these solutions for providing advanced capabilities to their fleets.