Navy likely to base its long-range surveillance planes in TN

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.

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.

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"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$2.1 billion with United States defence major Boeing for procuring eight P-8Is.