Indian Army to deploy 'Swati' in Ladakh mountains to monitor Chinese weapons

New Delhi, dated 29 June 2022, Wednesday

India has ordered Bharat Electronics Limited to upgrade a weapon locating radar that can be deployed in the mountains to detect Chinese weapons on the Ladakh border.

Swati is the name of the weapon locating radar. The military has already deployed the radar system on the border but now a sophisticated version will be deployed in the mountains against China.

This version is named Swati MK-2. It will be lighter in weight and capacity than the previous version Swati Array MK-1.

The main task of Swati MK-2 is to track the enemy's artillery shells, rockets or mortars coming towards it. The 46 systems of the previous MK-1 version have been deployed at the borders of the entire country. The radar was developed by DRDO, Bharat Electronics and LRDE.

Radar can detect enemy artillery shells approaching from a distance of 30 kilometers and can also give information about its direction and speed. Similarly, it can locate a rocket or small missile from a distance of 80 km and trace a mortar from a distance of 20 km.

The lack of such radar was experienced by the Indian Army during the 1999 Kargil War. At that time, Pakistan had such a US radar deployed.

India then ordered the purchase of 12 similar radar systems from Anerika. By 2007, India had received its delivery. Scientists in India started building indigenous weapon locating radars based on it.

Not only that, India has also sold this type of radar to Armenia. The Armenian army is also using it. Swati radar can detect seven targets simultaneously.