The Indian Navy’s maritime surveillance capability has been augmented after it inducted two more Poseidon 8I maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft to counter China’s aggression in the Indian Ocean region.
The two aircraft, manufactured by US aerospace giant Boeing, arrived in India on December 30, officials said on Tuesday (January 4).
“The Indian Navy’s Boeing P-8I aircraft commenced operations from INS Hansa, Goa with two aircraft arriving on December 30. The aircraft were inducted after fitment of indigenous equipment and flight acceptance trials,” Indian Navy spokesperson Commander Vivek Madhwal said.
When both planes entered the Indian air space, they were welcomed by a MiG 29K formation, the Navy spokesperson said.
the P-81 maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft were first inducted into the Indian Navy in 2013 and stationed at INS Rajali, Arakkonam.
“The second batch of four additional aircraft will be based at Indian Naval Air Squadron 316, to be commissioned at INS Hansa,” Madhwal said.
The existing fleet of P-8Is was extensively deployed to not only keep track of the movement of Chinese ships and submarines in the Indian Ocean region but was also used in Eastern Ladakh in 2020.
The Indian Navy has also taken on lease two Sea Guardian drones from an American defense major over a year ago and right now it is in the process to procure 30 multi-mission armed Predator drones from the US for the three services at an estimated cost of over USD 3 billion.
The medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) Predator-B drones, manufactured by US defense major General Atomics, are capable of remaining airborne for around 35 hours and can hunt down targets at land and sea.
Also known as MQ-9 Reaper, can be deployed on a range of missions including surveillance, reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, and destroying enemy targets.
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