TSAMTO, July 14. On July 13, Boeing announced the delivery of the 10th aircraft of the P-8I "Neptune" (the Indian version of the American P-8A "Poseidon") to the Indian Navy as part of the contract signed in 2016.
The aircraft are designed for information collection, surveillance and reconnaissance at sea, anti-submarine warfare, support of operations to assist victims of emergency situations, as well as performing humanitarian missions.
As reported by TSAMTO, the basic contract worth about $ 2.1 billion, providing for the supply of eight P-8I "Neptune" aircraft (the 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 aircraft. To date, all 8 P-8I of the first batch have been delivered, the aircraft are based at the Rajali Air Base (Arakonam, pcs.Tamil Nadu) and have been used since 2013.
In July 2016, a new contract worth $ 1.1 billion was signed, providing for the supply of four additional P-8I "Neptune". The first of these aircraft landed at the Khanza base of the Indian Navy on November 18, 2020.
At the moment, the total flight time of the Indian P-8I has exceeded 30 thousand flight hours.
In April 2021, the US State Department approved the potential supply of 6 more P-8I Poseidon base patrol aircraft, as well as related equipment and services, to India under the Foreign Military Sales program. The total cost of the sale may amount to $ 2.42 billion.
According to Boeing, it is currently completing the construction of a Training and Data Processing Support Center at the Rajali base and an auxiliary center at the Naval Institute of Aviation Technology (Kochi) as part of a training and support contract signed in 2019. Training on the territory of India will allow the crews of the country's Navy to improve their flight skills in a shorter time and reduce the training time.