Snooping aircraft celebrates 25 years service with Indian Navy

NEW DELHI: The Tu-142M maritime snooping aircraft, which on several occasions picked up Chinese and Pakistani submarines operating close to Indian waters, today celebrated 25 years of service with the Indian Navy.

Set to be replaced by the American-origin P-8I anti-submarine warfare aircraft, the Russian origin Tupolev142M has done 28,000 hours of accident-free flying with the INAS 312 Maritime Reconnaissance Squadron of the Eastern Naval Command based at Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu.

The squadron is also inducting the Boeing P-8I and two of these have also been received.

On the occasion, Eastern Naval Commander Vice Admiral Anil Chopra unveiled the Silver Jubilee Plaque and released a Coffee Table Book recounting the glorious journey of the Squadron.

The eight aircraft of the squadron have been upgraded in the last decade in Russia to plug the gaps till the time the American aircraft arrive in India and join the operational service, Navy officials said here.

The Navy has also taken a decision to continue using them for another 2-3 years after which they will be phased out and all the eight P-8I aircraft would have arrived in India from the US.

The aircraft were inducted in 1988 after the Navy especially created the INS Rajali naval air base with a 4-km air strip for it.