Navy to get 8 aircraft from Boeing for $2.1 bn

NEW DELHI: Shaken by the audacity of the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai, the Manmohan Singh government has taken another step towards securing the country���s rather long coastline by signing the $2.1-billion deal with the US for the purchase of eight P-81 long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft.

The deal, signed with the aerospace major Boeing on January 1, marks the largest defence pact with the US, signifying the growing ties between the two countries. The purchase of the eight aircraft will strengthen the Navy���s intelligence-gathering capabilities. The government had approved the deal in its last Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting after protracted negotiations.

The deal with Boeing was through a direct commercial contract and issues such as end-user verification agreement between India and the US for these defence products were still pending, sources said. The Navy will get its first aircraft under the deal by 2012-13 and the rest of the aircraft would be delivered in phases by 2015-16, they added.

The contract also provided for the Navy to place follow-on orders for about eight more of these aircraft, being purchased to replace the existing fleet of eight ageing Tupolev-142M turboprops. The P-8I is armed with torpedoes, depth bombs and Harpoon anti-ship missiles and is capable of anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare. The aircraft has an operating range of over 600 nautical miles.

The Navy is also on the look-out for six medium-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft for around Rs 1,600 crore to achieve its aim of an effective three-tier surveillance grid in the entire Indian Ocean.