Israel will finally deliver the first of three Phalcon AWACS (airborne warning and control systems) it had agreed to sell to India 5 years ago.

Israel signed a $1.1 billion deal in 2004 to supply India with three AWACS, built on Russian Ilyushin-76 airplanes.

The first AWACS developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) will be delivered to India later this month, Jerusalem Post reported.

The Phalcon is an all-weather system capable of logging 60 targets simultaneously and can operate to a range of up to 400 km.

Israel was supposed to deliver the first AWACS to India in December 2007 and the rest by March 2009.

The program encountered delays, though, due to difficulty in installing the Israeli early-warning radar suite on the Russian aircraft. The remaining two planes are scheduled to reach India in 2010.

MGH/DT