Boeing Poseidon-8I keeps a hawk's eye on China: All you need to know about $1 bn deal

New Delhi - India on Wednesday signed a $1 billion deal with American defence and aerospace major Boeing for procuring four additional ‘Poseidon-8I’ long-range maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft. [caption id=“attachment_2920772” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A U.S. Navy Boeing Poseidon P8 sits on display at the Singapore Airshow February 11, 2014. Reuters[/caption] The contract is a follow-on order to eight P-81 planes already bought by India in a direct deal with the firm worth $2.1 billion, said a PTI report quoting defence sources. Here is an all you need to know about the deal and the aircraft: 1) The acquisition of additional ‘P-8I’ will be a shot in the arm of the Indian Navy as the country has been building up its naval surveillance capabilities. 2) Armed with lightweight torpedoes and rockets among others, the Navy is extensively using the P-8I to keep a strict vigil over the Indian Ocean, which has seen numerous Chinese submarine forays, including docking of a nuclear sub in Sri Lanka. They are often termed “intelligent hawk eyes”. 3) The long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft has an operational speed of 450 miles per hour and a range of 4,500 nautical miles. An earlier report in The Economic Times claims that these planes identify the threats much before they reach the Indian shores. 4) The P8Is are used for not only for long-range patrol but is also equipped with deadly Harpoon missiles for anti-submarine warfare. 5) Poseidon was originally developed by Boeing for the US Navy. P8I is a variant of P8As used by the US Navy. 6) In 2009, India had placed a $2.1 billion for eight P-8I aircraft. The first one was delivered in May 2013. Incidentally, India was ‘P-8’s first international customer and was also Boeing’s first military sale to India. 7) As of now all the eight P8Is of the first order have been integrated into the Indian navy. The fleet is based at the Naval Air Station Rajali in Tamil Nadu. 8) The $2.1 billion deal of 2009 was then the largest defence deal India signed with the US. With Wednesday’s deal, the total value of defence deals India has signed with the US in the last one decade comes to around $15 billion. 9) The latest contract for four P8Is was inked during the ongoing visit of US Under Secretary for Defence on Acquisition Frank Kendall, and is seen as a sign of growing Indo-US defence ties. 10) India had last year signed a $3 billion contract with the US through Foreign Military Sales route for 22 Apache and 15 Chinook helicopters. The country is also working on a deal to get 145 pieces of M777 light-weight howitzers from the US, the sources said. With Agencies