SIGINT India

In early 1964, India-US agreed to install, in the Himalayas, telemetry intelligence (TELINT) devices for information about
Chinese missile developments.
1st was installed near the summit of Nanda Devi 1965,

2nd operated on the summit of Nanda Kot in 1967-68

1969, US established a large SIGINT station in
North India, which replaced the US station at Peshawar in Pakistan. The station was designed to monitor both Chinese nuclear and missile activities in Sinkiang Province and also monitor Nuclear & Missile activities in Pakistan.

ln 1971, during the India-Pakistan war, the Soviet Union
provided the Indian Air Force with a Tu-126 Moss airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft and crew
In addition to its air surveillance radar system the Moss was equipped with ELINT and ESM systems.

In the early 1970, the Soviet Union established two SIGINT
stations in Punjab. One station operated by some 300 Soviet Air Force personnel, is at Ludhiana; the other, with some 200 personnel, is at Bhatinda. These stations provide SIGINT of northern Pakistan and southwest China.

The Signals Intelligence Directorate (SID) of the MoD is India's largest SIGINT organisation, and is reportedly involved in some 40 per cent of India's SIGINT activity.

SID is administratively responsible for the Central Monitoring
Organisation (CMO), which maintains and operates the SIGINT stations. These stations are located across India, and monitor Pakistani, Chinese, Bangladeshi and Myanmar radio traffic.

The SID/CMO has responsibilities at both the military
operational level and, largely for historical reasons, the national strategic level. In the former role, it not only collects military ELINT and COMINT at its own stations, but also coordinates SIGINT of the Army Commands

At the national level, CMO's No.5 Company Operates a station in the Delhi Diplomatic traffic. The CMO also has a responsibility for communications security (COMSEC)

SID was responsible for airborne SIGINT patrol along the border, which involved the daily flight of an AVRO H5748 aircraft from Kargil to Gujarat. Now, all airborne SIGINT operations have been transferred to ARC, and SID is now responsible for groundbased SIGINT operations only

Within RAW, responsibility for SIGINT , lies with the Electronic Technical Section (ETS), which maintains stations for monitoring the encrypted diplomatic and military communications of neighbouring countries &
Aviation Research Centre (ARC), for airborne SIGINT operations.

RAW maintains a large SIGINT station in Delhi and numerous stations throughout the rest of India, monitoring signals from Pakistan,Afghanistan, China, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bruma, etc. The RAW maintains a number of stations for satellite
communications (SATCOM)

The ARC remains chiefly concerned with airborne intelligence operations (both
PHOTINT and SIGINT) against China. Advanced signals monitoring equipment has been produced indigenously by the ARC (Technical) services Branch.

The ARC maintains specially configured aircraft for
SIGINT operations - includingBoeing 707s, Learjet 29As, Gulfstream IV SRAs, An-32 Sutlejs and Ilyushin Il-76 Gajrajs, Bombardier 5000s

The ARC maintains two major air bases and associated
processing facilities. The first is at Charbatia on the outskirts of Cuttack in Orissa; The second is at Sarsawa, near in UP, provides airborne coverage of the of
the India-China border, as well as of northeast Pakistan.

The ARC is reportedly now also responsible for the daily
patrol by HS 748 AVRO SIGINT aircraft along the Pakistan border from Kargil in Kashmir to Gujarat in the south. Recently it has replaced the AVRO with Boeing 737s for this purpose.

DRDO is currently operating 3 SIGINT stations to collect
Chinese telemetry intelligence (TELINT) associated with ballistic missile. These stations are located near Naini Tal in the Himalayas; at Bareilly, and one near Darjeeling.

The Navy operates maritime patrol aircraft,
equipped with a variety of ELINT and ESM systems. These include Dornier Do-228s, P-8A Poseidon,
lL-38 Mays. Indian Navy also operates Sea King Mark 428
ASW helicopters, which are equipped with the Herme ESM.

Sindhughosh -class submarines are equipped with a HF/VHF intercept array, Quad Loop DF system, a Squid Head ESM system.

Shishumar-class , are equipped with Phoenix II ESM system which provides automatic identification bearing intercepted radar emissions in range of 2-18Ghz.

+ Rajput CLass destroyers are equipped with two WatchDog ELINT/ESM systems.

Godavari Class frigates arc equipped with the Selenia INS-3 ESM system, which covers the 1-18 GHz band; its RQN-3 s provides automatic detection, analysis DF/tracking of radar emitters.

Nilgiri-class frigates are equipped with Racal UA 8/9 radar intercept systems and Telefunken Telegon
FH5 DF system.

The Talwar and Beas -class frigates carry the Telefunken Telegon IV DF systems.

Khukri-class Corvettes, are equipped with AiantaP radar intercept systems

In addition the Navy operates Coastal Surveillance Radar Stations on coastline and outside India, outside India:-

Maldives- 10
Sri Lanka- 6,
Mauritius- 8,
Seychelles - 1

These radars will generate live feeds of ship movements in the IOR.

The All-India Radio Monitoring Service (AIRMS), located in
Simla, monitors all non-encrypted broadcasts from countries of interest to India, such as those from Pakistan, Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, China and Sri Lanka.

The AIRMS has close working relations with the Indian
intelligence community, including both the RAW and Military
intelligence. Its archival records of foreign broadcasts are a source of 'raw intelligence'. AIRMS facilities are utilised during military operations for deception.

Indian Army and Airforce maintain independent SIGINT capabilities.

Source :-
SIGINT IN SOUTH ASIA by Desmond Ball