BEL delivers 7,000th transmit module to Thales for Rafale’s RBE2 radar

In line with the ‘Make in India‘ policy, Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has manufactured its 7,000th transmit/receive (T/R) module for the RBE2 radar onboard the Dassault Aviation Rafale and delivered it to Thales, the company said on Wednesday. Headquartered in Noida, Thales has reinforced its commitment to the ‘Make in India’ policy through technology transfers and local production, the statement said.

“Thales is an active stakeholder in the Indian government’s Make in India policy. In November 2020, the first RBE2 AESA (Active Electronic Scanning Array) radar with a front end manufactured by BEL in India was delivered by Thales to Dassault Aviation. Four years later, BEL is pleased to announce that the 7,000th transmit/receive module has been produced and delivered to Thales,” the company said in a statement.

This is only an intermediate milestone in a long-term successful collaboration, the statement added.

According to BEL, its cooperation with Thales has expanded with the commencement of production of advanced microwave modules for Rafale’s SPECTRA Electronic Warfare (EW) suite.

“The T/R (transmit/receive) modules are crucial to the RBE2 radar’s active electronic scanning performance, enabling it to steer the radar beam at the speed of an electronic chip,” it added.