Navy’s P-8I surveillance aircraft fleet finds second home in Goa

The Navy stated, “Boeing P-8I aircraft commenced operations from INS Hansa, Goa with two aircraft arriving” on December 30. The aircraft, it said, “were inducted after fitment of indigenous equipment and Flight Acceptance Trials”.

The two aircraft were welcomed by a formation of Navy’s MiG-29k.

The P-8I aircraft was welcomed at the naval airbase by two MiG-29K naval fighter aircraft. (Source: Indian Navy)

The Navy had acquired the first batch of eight P-8I aircraft in 2013, which are stationed at INS Rajala Naval Air Base at Akakkonam in Tamil Nadu.

The second batch of four additional P-8I aircraft will be based at the Indian Naval Air Squadron 316, which will be commissioned at INS Hansa.

The Navy had bought eight of these aircraft in an over US$ 2.1 billion agreement in 2009, which included an optional clause to buy four more. From the total 12, just one aircraft is pending delivery, as the 11th was delivered to the Navy in October.

The P-8I, manufactured by American aviation giant Boeing, is designed for long-range anti-submarine warfare (ASW), anti-surface warfare (ASuW), and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.

Last year, the US government had approved the sale of six more P-8I aircraft to India, for which the Acceptance of Necessity had been granted by the Defence Acquisition Council headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in November 2019. However, the deal worth nearly US$ 2.4 billion is still in progress.