Indian Navy receives second P8I maritime patrol aircraft

November 16, 2013 01:09 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 12:18 pm IST - Washington

American defence major Boeing has delivered the second P-8I aircraft to India that is likely to boost the Indian Navy’s long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare capabilities. Boeing, which is building eight P-8I aircrafts for India, delivered the first one in May.

Based on the company’s Next-Generation 737 commercial airplane, the P-8I is the Indian Navy variant of the P-8A Poseidon that Boeing has developed for the US Navy.

“With two aircraft at Naval Station Rajali now, the Indian Navy will get a good feel for the P-8I’s interoperability with other aircraft,” said Leland Wight, Boeing P-8I programme manager.

“Acceptance trials on the first aircraft are progressing well and its availability for testing has been excellent, in large part due to Boeing’s worldwide 737 support capabilities,” Mr. Wight said.

The aircraft delivered on Friday will begin flight trials in the coming months. The first P-8I recently completed testing its weapons capabilities, including successfully firing a Boeing Harpoon missile at a target and dropping a torpedo.

In order to efficiently design and build the P-8I and the P-8A, the Boeing-led team is using a first-in-industry, in-line production process that draws on the company’s Next-Generation 737 production system, a media release said.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.