Indian Navy, on Tuesday, got its tenth Poseidon-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance anti-submarine warfare aircraft. The P-8I, which had taken off from the Boeing facility, landed at INS Hansa in Goa. INS Hansa will be getting the remaining two of these aircrafts, whose delivery was delayed due to the pandemic, in the coming weeks.
While some of these aircrafts are presently stationed at INS Rajali, Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu and are used by the Eastern command that is responsible for all naval forces in the Bay of Bengal and parts of the Indian Ocean, the remaining are under Western command which is responsible for the naval forces in the Arabian Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean.
The P-8I (I in P-8I stands for India) was extensively used during the recent border stand-off with China.
The patrol aircraft is an integral part of the Indian Navy’s fleet and has surpassed 30,000 flight hours since it was inducted in 2013. This is the second aircraft to be delivered under an option contract for four additional aircraft that the Indian Ministry of Defence awarded the company in 2016. The Indian Navy was the first international customer for the P-8 and today operates the largest non-US fleet. The P-8 is also operated by the US Navy, Royal Australian Air Force and the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force.
Boeing is also providing training to Indian Navy flight crews who are associated with P-8I apart from spare parts, ground support equipment and field service representative support.
The US-based MNC is currently completing construction of a training, support and data handling centre at INS Rajali, Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu and a secondary maintenance training centre at Naval Institute of Aeronautical Technology, Kochi, Kerala as part of a training and support package contract signed in 2019.
This new indigenous, ground-based training will allow Indian Navy crew to increase mission proficiency in a shorter time while reducing on-aircraft training time resulting in increased aircraft availability.
