• The Indian Army has inducted a lighter and compact version of indigenously developed Weapon Locating Radar (WLR) called Swathi Mountains.

• Swathi Mountains WLR is an advanced, electronically scanned phased array radar, specifically designed for operations in mountainous and high-altitude areas.

• It was developed by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) in Bengaluru.

Weapon Locating Radar

• Weapon Locating Radar (WLR) is an electronically scanned phased array radar. 

• The radar automatically locates hostile artillery, mortars and rocket launchers and tracks friendly fire to locate the impact point of friendly artillery fire to issue necessary corrections. 

• The radar is designed to detect projectiles with small cross section across the battlespace horizon, and has the capability to handle simultaneous fire from weapons deployed at multiple locations. 

• The radar uses advanced signal processing techniques for detection and tracking projectiles in the presence of ground, weather clutter and other forms of interference in electronic warfare scenario. 

• The radar is designed for high mobility, quick deployment and decamp.

Swathi radar

• The Swathi radar comes in two versions — Swathi Plains and Swathi Mountains.

• Swathi radar has been primarily designed to locate hostile guns, mortars and rockets. 

• This will enable troops to carry out their operational tasks without any interference from the enemy and also provide them safety against enemy fire.

• In its secondary role it can track and observe the fall of shot from own weapons to provide corrections to own fire. 

• Detection, location and tracking of the requisite targets is handled by the advanced algorithms and state-of-the-art hardware. 

• The ability to locate enemy weapons from its first round and transmit the data of the required target to the counter fire elements for retaliatory strike before the target is redeployed is the key feature of the radar. 

• Swathi is a joint development project undertaken by DRDO’s Electronics & Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) and BEL to fulfil the requirement of the Indian Army.

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