Indian Navy Maritime Multimission Aircraft (MMA)

Boeing P-8M Poseidon

The commercial deal between India and Boeing does not include armaments which will be supplied through the foreign military sales system.

India will get its first P-8I towards end-2012 or early-2013, with delivery of the remaining seven aircraft expected to be completed by 2015-16.

Under the contract India has an option to order four to eight more such planes.

The deal was inked on January 1, by defense ministry's joint secretary and acquisitions manager (maritime systems) Preeti Sudan and Boeing integrated defense systems vice-president and country head Vivek Lall, reports the TOI.

The P-8A Poseidon, a derivative of the 737-800, is a long range antisubmarine warfare, anti surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft capable of broad area, maritime and littoral operations. It is being built by a Boeing-led industry team that includes CFM International, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Spirit AeroSystems and GE Aviation. The team currently is assembling and testing the first five P-8As.

The P-8Is will replace Indian Navy's antiquated fleet of eight Russian Tu-142M maritime reconnaissance aircraft.

Based at Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu, the aircraft will help the Indian Navy keep a tab on Chinese nuclear submarines lurking around India.

India, along with Australia, is amongst the first foreign buyers of the Poseidon system, which is yet to be inducted into the US Navy.

The Poseidon has a 1,200+ nautical miles range, with 4 hours on station. Its range / time on station can be considerably enhanced with in-flight refueling.

It is designed to fly low and slow through the weather, unlike the 737-800; the 737 upswept winglets have been replaced with raked-back wingtips, better suited for icy conditions.

The aircraft will be armed with sonobuoys, torpedos and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. So far India has not conveyed to Boeing any interest in arming the aircraft with the Brahmos missiles.

For spotting and tracking threats it is equipped with

* An upgraded Raytheon APS137 Maritime Surveillance Radar
* Electro-optical / infrared sensors from Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems
* A rotary internal re loadable pneumatically controlled sonobuoy launcher.
* SIGINT equipment

Its self protection suite includes

* Towed Decoy Self Protection
* Infrared countermeasures

The U.S. Navy plans to purchase 108 P8As to replace its fleet of P3C aircraft. The first aircraft will be delivered for flight test in 2009 and initial operational capability is slated for 2013.