[Reader-list] India signs biggest ever defence deal with US

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear All,

Even as we debate and discuss economic depression and as some would argue,
its obvious correlation with terror. It seems that in some sectors terror
and economics go hand in hand and rightly so, for in order to protect our
great country we need few sticks.

Please read the story below which indicates that how even in these times of
rather grave economic crisis the Indian Government is giving its two pennies
to the cause of generating employment.

Kind regards

Taha




India signs biggest ever defence deal with US
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Agencies Posted: Jan 05, 2009 at 1651 hrs IST
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India has signed a deal to buy eight maritime aircraft from aerospace major
Boeing.India has signed a deal to buy eight maritime aircraft from aerospace
major Boeing.

India has signed a deal to buy eight maritime aircraft from aerospace major
Boeing.
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New Delhi: In its largest defence purchase ever from the US, India has
signed a deal to buy eight maritime aircraft from aerospace major Boeing to
strengthen the Navy's intelligence gathering capabilities.

The USD 2.1 billion contract for eight Boeing P-8I long-range maritime
reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft was signed between a Defence Ministry
official and Boeing's country head Vivek Lall here on January 1, Navy and
industry sources said in New Delhi on Monday.

The Government had approved the deal in its last Cabinet Committee on
Security (CCS) meeting in 2008 after protracted talks.

The deal with Boeing, sources said, was through a direct commercial contract
and issues such as end-user verification agreement between India and US for
these defence products were still pending, sources said.

The Navy will get its first aircraft under the deal by 2012-13 and the rest
of the aircraft would be delivered in phases by 2015-16, sources said.

The contract also provided for the Navy to place follow-on orders for about
eight more of these aircraft, being purchased to replace the existing fleet
of eight ageing Tupolev-142M turboprops.

The P-8I is armed with torpedoes, depth bombs and Harpoon anti-ship missiles
and is capable of anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare.

Expected to help in plugging the existing gaps in Navy's maritime
reconnaissance capabilities, the aircraft has an operating range of over 600
nautical miles.

Customised to meet Indian Navy's needs and based on the Boeing 737
commercial airliner, the P-8I aircraft is a variant of the P-8A Poseidon
multi-mission maritime aircraft under development for the US Navy to replace
its P-3C Orion fleet.

Interestingly, the P8I deal would be the largest deal India signed with the
US, after the USD 962 million deal signed in 2007 for six Lockheed Martin's
C-130J 'Super Hercules' transport aicraft for its special forces.

Its purchase would greatly help inter-operability and supportability
objectives of both the Indian and US Navies, according to a Boeing official
in New Delhi.

Apart from the Tu-142Ms, the Indian Navy currently uses IL-38SDs and
Dorniers for surveillance operations in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

It was also looking for six advanced medium-range maritime reconnaissance
aircraft at a budget of Rs 1,600 crore to further boost its patrol and
intelligence gathering capabilities in the IOR.