Cabinet gives its nod to buy Dornier surveillance aircraft

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on Security today gave its nod to buy 12 upgraded Dornier surveillance aircraft for Indian Navy at a cost of about Rs 2,500 crore.

Defence sources said the proposal was first given Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) by the Defence Acquisition Council in October 2014 and has finally being approved by the CCS, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The aircraft will be manufactured by state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited ( HAL) at its Transport Aircraft Division (TAD) in Kanpur, where over 120 of the type have been produced since 1984.

Maritime surveillance and patrol variants of the Do-228 have been modified by HAL to cater for a host of equipment demanded by the navy including surveillance radar, FLIR (forward looking infrared), ESM (electronic support measures), satellite communications, data links, speech secrecy equipment, TCAS (traffic collision avoidance system) and EGPWS (enhanced ground proximity warning system), among others.