The IAF has developed a new data sharing platform named ‘Vayulink' to enhance situational awareness of forces. The IAF displayed a model of Vayulink (pictured) at the Aero India 2023 show in Bangalore. (Janes/Oishee Majumdar)
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has developed a new platform that can be used to share location and a variety of other data between soldiers and equipment on ground, at sea, or in the airspace.
The system was unveiled by the IAF at the Aero India 2023 show being held in Bangalore from 13 to 17 February 2023.
The system, named Vayulink, is currently in deployment phase, the IAF officer leading the project, Wing Commander Vishal Mishra, told Janes .
Deployment of Vayulink started in 2021 and will continue over the next few years, Mishra said.
Vayulink has been implemented to provide digital real-time identification, friend or foe (IFF) between armoured vehicles and helicopters to prevent battlefield fratricide, Mishra added.
Mishra said Vayulink can also be deployed in hills, helping soldiers in two ways. Firstly, a sensor system integrated in Vayulink provides information about winds and temperature of an area to soldiers. Vayulink can also provide images of an area to soldiers to improve planning and situational awareness.
Secondly, since hills have radio voids, Vayulink can be “pre-installed on ground at strategic locations. It picks up data from the aircraft including radio calls, position data, and images, and relays them to other aircraft located in different valleys as well as to a central server”, Mishra added.
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