New Delhi: The Ministry of Defence on Wednesday signed a contract worth about ₹770 crore — yaani roughly ₹7.7 billion — with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) to procure Improved Low Level Light Weight Radars (LLLR-I) for the Indian Army, according to a Press Information Bureau release.
Source: Press Information Bureau (PIB)
The contract was signed in New Delhi on October 21 in the presence of Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, the ministry said. BEL is a Navratna defence public sector undertaking.
Built to catch what flies low
The LLLR-I can detect and track fighter-sized aerial targets as well as mini and micro drones, and it can prioritise aerial targets, the ministry said. That, it added, will enable the Army to counter the threat posed by unmanned aerial systems (UAS), which are increasingly used for surveillance, reconnaissance and attacks and are hard for conventional air defence to spot because of their small size.
The ministry did not announce how many radars will be supplied or a delivery schedule in the release.
Helicopters, small drones and low-flying aircraft can slip under the coverage of large surveillance radars. Lightweight forward radars watch exactly that low band of sky, giving Army units earlier warning and time to respond.
The ministry said the procurement is a significant step towards indigenisation of air defence platforms, aligned with the government's Viksit Bharat @2047 vision, and is expected to boost India's defence manufacturing ecosystem, including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), while reducing dependence on outside sources for critical military equipment.
Sources: Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Defence) release of October 21, 2026, reported by IBG News and Upstox; BizzBuzz also reported the signing.