Chennai:
The first of eight Boeing P-8I Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance and Anti-Submarine Warfare (LRMRASW) aircrafts India has purchased from the United States arrived at the naval air station at nearby Arakkonam on Wednesday.
The P-8I, based on the Boeing 737-800(NG) airframe, is the Indian naval variant of the P-8A Poseidon that Boeing has developed for the U.S. Navy.
Vice Admiral Bimal Kumar Verma, Chief of Staff (Eastern Naval Command), received the aircraft at a function organised at INS Rajali.
Equipped with foreign and indigenous sensors for maritime reconnaissance, anti-submarine operations and electronic intelligence missions, the aircraft is fully integrated with state-of-the-art sensors and highly potent anti-surface and anti-submarine weapons, a defence press release said.
"The P-8I aircraft will greatly enhance India's maritime surveillance capability in the Indian Ocean Region," it said.
The remaining seven aircrafts under the 2009 contract will be delivered over the next two years, the release added.