TSAMTO, November 19. According to Indian media, the command of the Indian Navy received a new aircraft BPA P-8I " Neptune "(Indian version of the American P-8A" Poseidon") as part of a contract signed with Boeing in 2016.
The plane landed at the khanza base of the Indian Navy in the early morning of November 18. It is the 9th P-8I delivered by Boeing. The aircraft was originally scheduled for delivery in July 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the timing was changed. Three more P-8IS are planned for adoption in 2021.
As reported by TSAMTO, the basic contract worth about 2.1 billion dollars, providing for the supply of eight p-8I "Neptune" aircraft (Indian designation of the American P-8A "Poseidon") and auxiliary equipment, was signed by the government of India in January 2009. India became the first foreign customer of the P-8A. To date, all 8 aircraft of the first batch have been delivered, are based at the Rajali air base (Arakonam, Tamil Nadu) and have been used since 2013. At the moment, the total flight time of the Indian P-8I has exceeded 25 thousand flight hours.
In July 2016, a new contract worth $ 1.1 billion was signed for the delivery of four additional p-8I Neptune aircraft.
In addition, negotiations are currently underway to purchase 6 additional P-8IS under the Foreign military sales program, with a total cost of about $ 1.8 billion. If the deal is approved by Congress, the parties will sign a " letter of offer and acceptance of the offer." The contract is due to be signed by the beginning of next year.
According to Boeing, the company is currently completing the construction of a training and data processing support Center at Rajali (Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu) and a support center at the Naval Institute of aviation technology (Kochi) under a training and support contract signed in 2019. Training in these centers will allow Navy crews to improve their flight skills in a shorter time, reduce the training time on Board the aircraft, which will increase the readiness of the p-8I Neptune fleet to perform tasks as intended.