Indian Navy P-8I MPA Indian Naval Aviation received a major fillip with the arrival of the first of the eight Boeing P-8I Long Range Ma...
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| Indian Navy P-8I MPA |
Vice Admiral Bimal Kumar Verma, Chief of Staff (Eastern Naval Command) received the aircraft in a function organized at INS Rajali.
P-8I will bolster India's maritime surveillance capability in the Indian Ocean Region, and is one of most advanced weapon system, only second to US Navy P-8A variant.
P-8I will replace the ageing fleet of Tupolev Tu-142 aircrafts that are in service with the Indian Navy.
The Indian navy is the first international customer for the P-8. Boeing signed the $2.1 billion contract on Jan. 1, 2009. The remaining seven aircrafts would be delivered over the next two years.
The P-8I Poseidon is based on the commercial Boeing 737-800(NG) airframe, is the Indian variant of the P-8A Poseidon that Boeing has developed for the US Navy.
P-8I is capable of long-range anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions in broad-area, maritime and littoral operations.
The Indian Navy is in process of procuring an additional four P-8I aircraft under the option clause.
The forward section of the under-fuselage houses an internal weapons bay. The wings are fitted with hardpoints for carrying air-to-surface missiles.
The internal weapons bay will carry Mark 54 torpedoes, depth charges and free-fall bombs.
It will carry the deadly harpoon block II anti ship missile which has a range of 124 km. In December 2010, India requested the sale of 24 AGM-84L Harpoon Block II.
The aircraft is equipped with a CAE AN/ASQ-508A magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) system for detecting submarines, APS-143C(V)3 multimode radar and a global version of the Raytheon APY-10 surveillance radar.
The APY-10 radar provides precise information in all weather, day and night missions.
As India refused to sign the Communications Interoperability & Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) with US, advanced systems like Raytheon IFF transponder (Mode IV Crypto), SINCGARS radio, TACTERM/ADVT secure voice (HF) terminals and Rockwell-Collins SATCOM transceivers where withheld.
Indian Navy plugged the CISMOA-induced gaps on the P-8I by integrating Indian systems like BEL Data Link II communications system, Avantel mobile satellite system and a speech secrecy system from Electronics Corporation of India(ECIL).
The P-8I aircraft is powered by two CFM56-7 engines which provides a take-off thrust of 27,300lb. The engines are equipped with a new-generation full authority digital engine control (FADEC) system.
The P-8I aircraft can fly at a maximum speed of 789 km/h. It can reach a maximum altitude of 12,496m. The aircraft has a maximum range of 2,222 km with four hours on station, and has a maximum take-off gross weight of 85,139 kg.
P-8I aircraft is manufactured by a Boeing-led industry team, comprising of CFM International, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Spirit AeroSystems, BAE Systems and GE Aviation. The aircraft is built at Boeing's production facility in Renton, Washington.
