P-8s To Expand India's Networked Maritime Power
NEW DELHI - The six P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft India has contracted to buy from Boeing will provide the Navy a broad array of capabilities, and be fitted with air-to-surface missiles, an internal bomb bay suite, sonar buoys, torpedoes and aerial depth-charge bombs, an India Navy official said.
The aircraft will have an operational life of more than 15 years, and with their new-generation maritime patrol radar, will be able to automatically track up to 80 targets day or night.
To take full advantage of these capabilities, the system needs to be networked with other platforms, said Gurpreet Khurana, Indian Navy commander and defense analyst.
"The Indian Navy would need to data-link these aircraft with the medium-range maritime aircraft, surface ships and nuclear submarines [Advance Technology Vehicle] to be inducted shortly. The link itself will need to be networked with the indigenous [Navy Enterprise Wide Network] system being developed by the Navy. Space-based assets will also need to provide surveillance cover and the information will need to be linked to the entire system," Khurana said.
The $2.1 billion purchase was one of the biggest single deals India has made with a U.S. company.
"The P-8I is the world's most technologically advanced maritime patrol aircraft and offers India tremendous capability advances over legacy systems. The P-8I is a variant of the P-8A Poseidon now being developed for the U.S. Navy. The two aircraft are highly common," said Brian Nelson, business support, communications and community relations - India Integrated Defense Systems
"India is the first international customer for the P-8. Boeing will deliver the first P-8I within 48 months of the contract signing, and the remaining seven by 2015," the official Jan. 6 Boeing release said.
Boeing was selected over EADS, which had fielded its A319 aircraft.
The request for proposal (RfP) for the eight LRMR was floated in January 2005, and RfPs were sent to U.S. firms Boeing and Lockheed Martin, France's Dassault, Italy's Finmeccanica, Russia's Ilyushin Design Bureau and Brazil's Embraer, among others.
Several companies, including Dassault, Finmeccanica and Embraer, did not participate. Based on submission by other bidders, the Indian Navy rejected the U.S. P-3C Orion and the IL-38 of Russia because they could not meet the technical parameters.
Boeing and EADS were finally left in the fray.
The P-8I will replace eight Russian TU-142 M maritime reconnaissance aircraft with the Indian Navy.
Khurana added that the Raytheon AN/APY-10 radar system fitted on P-8I is state of the art not only for surveillance, but also for fire-control and controlling aircraft, similar to a mini-AWACS, and is also fitted with a cutting-edge technology data-link system and armed with anti-ship missiles, which the TU-142M's did not have.
In 2007, India and the U.S. contracted the sale of six C-130J transport aircraft for India's armed forces for $962 million, and the sale of the USS Trentron Landing Platform Dock to the Indian Navy for $50 million to be used for littoral warfare here.
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