In a bid to strengthen the arsenal of the naval surveillance, India is all set to invest an estimated 2900 crores ($3.5 billion) to purchase over a dozen maritime surveillance aircraft from the aviation giant Airbus SE.
According to an official statement, the medium-range, multi-mission maritime reconnaissance aircraft will be added to the naval arsenal in an attempt to strengthen "the surveillance and interdiction capabilities of the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard over the country's vast maritime area."
An acquisition council headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh finalised the the decision to enhance India's surveillance aircraft fleet on Friday.
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About Indian Navy's new aircraft
As pr the decision taken by the Centre, nine of these medium-range, multi-mission maritime reconnaissance aircraft will get added to Indian Navy's fleet while the remaining six will go the coast guard.
Four of the C-295 planes will be made in the European facilities of Airbus while the rest of the remaining aircraft will be made in India by the joint venture between Airbus and India's Tata Advanced Systems, as per reports.
Indian Navy in Arabian Sea
In view of the frequent incidents of ship attacks in the Arabian Sea in recent times, India has already deployed around a dozen warships, a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles and US-made, long-range maritime surveillance aircraft in the Arabian Sea for anti-piracy operations.
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The addition of the state-of-the-art surveillance aircraft is expected to bring more strength to its operations in the Indian Ocean region.
