mong the various craft lined up at Indian Navy’s Air Station INS Dega coinciding with the Tri-Service (Southern Theatre) Commanders’ Conference, the Boeing P8I stands out.
Indian Navy is the first to acquire the Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance and Anti-Submarine Warfare craft from Boeing.
“The US is the only other country that has the craft where it is called P8A. Australia and other countries are now trying to acquire it,” a pilot told newsmen during a visit of the craft that landed at INS Dega on Thursday. The P8Is are stationed at Naval Air Station Arakkonam.
It is equipped with radar, electronic support measures and electro-optics and has infrared vision. Boeing P8I’s offensive capabilities include air-to-surface missiles and anti-submarine torpedoes.
“What unique the capability of the craft is its sensors and weapons. It is extremely capable and extremely reliable because of it is built on a civil and proven platform,” said Commanding Officer of INS Dega Captain D. Bhattacharya.
With an endurance of 12 hours it can keep gathering information.
“For military reconnaissance it can keep flying on the ocean, gathering information and its piecing together results in a network of intelligence. That leads to building maritime domain awareness for which P8I is a capable platform,” Captain Bhattacharya added.
The craft could fly low vastly increasing India’s search and rescue operations. It had participated in the search for wreckage of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.
During the extensive search, P8Is had operated from Port Blair, Kuala Lumpur and Australia. Seven of the eight P8Is contracted have joined the Navy. The US is the only other nation that uses about similar equipment fit for its Navy.
Both P8I and P8A were inducted about same time.
The TUs have a longer range because they are turbo-prop but supporting the craft had become difficult. They are nearing the end of their total technical life.
“Because of it being on Boeing 737 commercial platform maintenance is much easier and the number of aircraft available on line is always more,” elaborated Capt. Bhattacharya. It has expendable sonar buoys that search and send automatic signals, the pilot explained.
It also has magnetic anomaly detector that sends signals from metallic objects.
It also participated in the search for the missing Dornier craft off Tamil Nadu coast.
However, it can not be effective to locate craft at the depth at which the Dornier was finally traced.
It had participated in the search for wreckage of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370
