Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh during his visit to Mumbai undertook a sortie on an Navy P-8I maritime patrol aircraft and witnessed firsthand its long range surveillance and Anti-Submarine Warfare capabilities.
“During the mission, long range surveillance, electronic warfare, imagery intelligence, ASW missions and Search and Rescue capabilities employing the state-of-the-art mission suite and sensors were demonstrated,” the Navy said in a statement on Wednesday. The flight crew for this sortie comprised of two Pilots and seven Naval Air Operations Officers including three women officers, it stated.
The induction of P8I aircraft commencing 2013, have significantly enhanced Indian Navy’s persistent surveillance operations in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), the statement noted. The Navy currently operates 12 P-8I aircraft which since induction have completed over 37,000 hours of operational flying.
The P8I’s state-of-the-art sensors like multi-mode radars, electronic intelligence system, sonobuoys, Electro-Optic, Infra Red (EO/IR) camera and advanced weapons like Harpoon Anti-shipping Missile and Mk54 torpedo, provide the Navy with a very potent platform with significant capability to deter and destroy.
These aircraft have been utilised along the International Border, Line of Control (LoC) and Line of Actual Control (LAC) to keep an eye on adversaries’ movement, a defence official noted. “The aircraft has operated along land frontiers in conjunction with the Army and Air Force to harness its multi mission capability during tri-services operations,” the official stated.
