Indian Navy is to base its P8-I at its air bases in Tamil Nadu

The Indian Navy is likely to base its newly acquired long-range maritime surveillance aircraft P8-I at one of its air bases in Tamil Nadu."We are planning to base our P-8Is at Naval Air Station Rajali at Arakonnam replacing the Russian Tupolov 142s now used by us," Navy officials said here. The P-8Is have been procured by the Indian Navy to replace the Tu-142 fleet inducted into the Navy in 80s. The Navy will start developing the infrastructure at the base to host ten aircraft. "The Rajali base has a long runway at present used by the Tu-142s. More infrastructure will be created for the P8-Is which are expected to arrive in 2013," they said. Deployment and usage, officials said, of the P-8I was discussed by the senior Naval officers during the Naval Commanders' conference in Vishakhapatanam. The process to acquire the long-range maritime surveillance aircraft was on for the past few years and on January 1 this year, the Defence Ministry signed an agreement worth USD 2.1 billion with United States defence major Boeing for procuring eight P-8Is.

Posted in: India,Maritime Patrol Aircraft,Naval