What is UNICORN/NORA-50 Project?

In the first week of July 2026, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was on an official visit to India. She held wide-ranging discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 16th India-Japan Annual Summit in New Delhi. During her visit, India and Japan signed their first-ever defence co-development project.

• India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the agreement on the Naval Radio Antenna project would open a new chapter in the India-Japan defence technology partnership.

• The Naval Radio Antenna project, known as UNICORN (Unified Complex Radio Antenna or NORA-50), is India and Japan’s first-ever joint defense co-development project.

What is UNICORN or NORA-50 Project?

• It is a state-of-the-art stealth mast designed to consolidate multiple scattered communication antennas into a single, compact, spire-shaped dome.

• UNICORN replaces conventional warship antenna farms — dozens of exposed sensors and transmitters that have historically been strong radar reflectors — with a single integrated radar dome (radome) that houses multiple antenna systems.

• UNICORN sharply reduces a ship’s electromagnetic signature. That reduction makes the mast — once one of the brightest radar returns on a warship — far harder for an adversary to detect, classify, and track.

• Its’ features include; Link 16 antenna, TACAN antenna, IFF antennas, ESM (ES‑R), ESM (ES‑C), UHF/VHF Tx/Rx antenna and ORQ‑2B‑4 Offshore Wireless Router.

Sources: PIB & Financial Express

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