Coast Guard to procure six maritime aircraft

NEW DELHI: The Indian Coast Guard is planning to procure six Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft for enhancing surveillance in coastal areas and country's Exclusive Economic Zone.

The sea guarding force has expressed its intent to procure these aircraft soon after it suspended its over two-year-long tender process for acquiring an equal number of Medium Range Maritime Reconnaissance (MRMR) aircraft.

"We are looking to procure six multi-mission aircraft for our aviation wing," a Coast Guard official said here.

Initial steps for the acquisition process have already been taken and the global tender for procuring these aircraft would be issued soon.

Officials said the aircraft should have both air to air and maritime surveillance radars to keep an eye on both airborne and seaborne threats and also help in locating, identifying and tracking them.

The force wants the aircraft to have the capability to integrate the latest Active Electronic Scanned Array radar which will allow it to have a 360 degree coverage of areas being scanned.

The Coast Guard also wants the aircraft to have the capability to mount the Ordinance Factory Board manufactured 12.7 mm machine gun as its fire power.

In the MRMR tender, the Coast Guard had already completed trials of two foreign aircraft including the Russian bereiv-200 maritime amphibious aircraft and the Canadian Bombardier aircraft.