DRDO Netra
India's own airborne early warning platform.
About the Netra
The Netra AEW&C system is an Indian airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft developed indigenously by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the Indian Air Force. The aircraft is based on the Embraer EMB-145I airframe.
Service history
Netra puts an indigenous active phased-array radar on an Embraer ERJ-145, giving 240-degree coverage rather than the full circle of a rotodome — a deliberate trade for a smaller, cheaper aircraft. Developed by DRDO's Centre for Airborne Systems and inducted from 2017, it directed fighter operations during the 2019 Balakot strike and again in 2025.
Combat edge
Indigenous AESA radar developed by DRDO CABS
240-degree coverage from a dorsal antenna array
Directed air operations during Balakot, 2019
Basis for the larger Netra Mk2 on an A321 airframe
Operations
Named operations this catalogue records DRDO Netra as having taken part in.
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