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Bengaluru, Feb 14 (IANS): With Make in India as its focus, and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar wooing global aerospace firms to make their products in India, Aero India 2017 kicked off here on Tuesday, with a flypast of the indigenous-built LCA Tejas, Light Combat Helicopter, and first ever public display of the Light Utility Helicopter.

Parrikar, in his inaugural address, invited aerospace firms to make their products in India, which had opened up the defence sector for foreign direct investment, partnerships, collaborations and joint ventures.

"We have an ecosystem for defence manufacturing, with ease of doing business for global firms, a liberalised investment policy and norms to set up production units, joint ventures and research facilities across the country," he said as he inaugurated the 11th edition of the five-day biennial expo here.

Asked if new US President Donald Trump's 'America First' may have any affect on the 'Make in India' and stop US firms from participating in the programme, Parrikar said it was not his concern.

"You should have put this question to Boeing, they are there at the exhibition... Boeing, Lockheed Martin, etc.

"What I will say is what I want... I want you to Make in India. If someone wants to shift production to some other place, it is his choice. I am not concerned," Parrikar said at a press conference on the sidelines of "Aero India 2017".

This edition of Aero India, for the first time, combined the defence and civil aviation segments into a holistic event with the co-involvement of the Defence and Civil Aviation Ministries in the event.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajpathi Raju was also present at the inaugural event.

Raju, speaking at the occasion, highlighted that India was the fastest growing aviation sector in passenger terms in the world and held tremendous potential to graduate from the present position of being ninth in the world to being the third largest by 2022.

Among the highlights on the opening day was handing over of the Indigenous Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&C) christened 'Netra' to the Indian Air Force, making India the fourth nation to have developed the technology on its own, after US, Russia and Israel.

Parrikar also unveiled the full scale mock-up of Indian Multi-Role Helicopter (IMRH) at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) Pavilion.

A colourful flypast showcased India's increasing capability in manufacturing aircraft, with first ever public display of Light Utility Helicopter LUH.

The Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) meanwhile left the spectators enthralled, with its manoeuvres, taking a steep rise, and even flying backwards.

India is one of the few countries to have developed a combat helicopter.

The air Show witnessed a fly past by the Make in India formation consisting of HTT-40, Hawk-i, Dornier-228, Su-30MKI and the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft.

This was followed by the fighters tearing through the skies displaying a host of aerobatic manoeuvres - the Su 30 MKIA followed by Sweden's SAAB Gripen, Tejas LCA, the American F-16 Falcon and the French Rafale.

The Yakovlev aerobatic team, the Skycats, the Surya Kiran Aerobatics Team and the Sarang helicopter display team also presented a scintillating performance.

IAF gets AEW&C; India only fourth country to develop eye-in-sky technology

An indigenous Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&C) christened 'Netra' was handed over to the IAF on Tuesday at the ongoing 'Aero India 2017' here, ushering India into an elite club of nations that have developed such technology on their own.

The United States, Russia and Israel are the other countries which have developed the technology for the system.

The indigenous system mounted on an aircraft can track area within 240 degrees of its sides at any given point of time.

The handover of the system -- mounted on a Brazilian Embraer-145 jet -- by the Defence Research and Development Organisation to the Indian Air Force (IAF) was done in the presence of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, DRDO chief S. Christopher and Defence Minister's Scientific Adviser G. Satheesh Reddy.

The AEW&C consists of a state-of-the-art active electronically scanned radar, secondary surveillance radar, electronic and communication counter measures, LOS (Line of Sight) and beyond-LOS data link, voice communication system and self-protection suite, built on an Emb-145 platform, having a mid-air refueling capability to enhance surveillance time.

A complex tactical software has been developed for fusion of information from the sensors, to provide the air situation picture along with intelligence to handle identification/classification of threat.

It has battle management functions, built in-house, to work as a network centric system of Integrated Air Command & Control System (IACCS) node.

This system has been developed and evaluated through collaborative efforts between the DRDO and the Indian Air Force.

The IAF is already using the Israeli Phalcon AWACS on the Russian IL-76 heavy-lift aircraft to detect aerial threats from jets or missiles even from a distance of 400 km away.