Indian Navy's IW Squadron

[Sukumar]

This news has been circulating for some time:

An IW (Information Warfare) squadron, consisting of six Do-228s, was commissioned two years ago on the west coast of Goa.

Does anybody have details on this squadron such as:

1. What equipment is carried by the Dorniers.
2. What is the mission, capabilities, roles and respnosibilities.
3. What is the their operational doctrine in war.
4. How do they fit into the overall war fighting scenario of the fleet.

What is the INFO part of the INFOWAR squadron ?

[Sukumar]

Vikrant, you defined IW correctly - attacking the enemy's computer networks and infrastructure to deny him the availability of timely and accurate information. Monitor enemy computer networks and their operations.<P>Against this definition I could not understand what the Dorniers could be doing.<P>Sniffing electronic emissions is ELINT. Jamming radars and communications is EW. If they were doing ELINT or EW missions they would've been called that by the IN, why call them an IW squadron.<P>The questions still remain ????????????????

[vverma]

I don't know why the IN calls it the "IW squadron" but here's a brief description of what that squadron does. <P>The IN Dorniers carry the Super Marec Maritime Reconnaissance (MR) radar under it's belly with 360 degree capability.<BR><a href="http://www.hal-india.com/Do04.jpg">Super Marec: typical radar display</a><P>The Super Marec is heavily based on the Super Searcher which is a high performance radar in the Maritime Surveillance(MS) role. Super Searcher is basically the most suitable radar for a small size platform with ASW, ASV and monitoring EEZ capability.<BR>Check out the following site for detailed info on the Super Searcher.<BR><a href="http://www.rrds.co.uk/radar/airbornerad ... ml</a><P>I think that the Super Marec uses the signals processing capability of the Super Searcher to basically intercept communication between foreign vessels. Snooping into naval conversations seems to be its main objective. I don't think the Super Marec has any jamming capability a la EA-6B Prowler but apparently it does have limited surveillance capability which lets it operate in the ASV role(IN Do-228 can carry 2 Sea-Eagles). <P>I wouldn't worry too much about the terminilogy used by the navies around the world. Most of these terms are miserably defined.

[shiv]

I think ramen_das made an important point about IW. A large part is surveillance - just listening, classifying, fingerprinting, recording, trying to decode and analyse so that one has a better idea of what the enemy is up to and what he might want to do. <P>Since Dorniers are made in India under licence in separate versions for the Army, Navy AF and civ version - there is no need to borrow from Vayudoot.

[Sukumar]

Vverma, the IN operates Dornier 228s in the Maritime Patrol and utility roles. The equipment you describe is found on those versions.<P>Obviously the IW squadron has different equipment. Seems to be more of an ELINT role.

[vverma]

I'm a little confused after doing a little more reading. I'll try to compile some info on the IN fleet of Dorniers and how much surveillance capability does the Super Marec really have?

[Sukumar]

Youre right Planenuts (nice name ) IW includes obtaining info and denying info to the enemy.<P>So the IW squadron seems to have more of an ELINT and ECM role.<P>Vverma, the IN has more than one squadron of Dorniers. One for regular MR/utility duties and the other with 6 aircraft for the ELINT/EW role.<P>It is possible that they are crammed with Israeli electronics similar to the B707s flown by the RAW's ARC/IAF.

[Sukumar]

For those of you interested in knowing what Information Warfare (IW) is really all about, this is a good website:<P><A HREF="http://www.infowar.com/" target=external>Infowar.com</B></A>