Indian Navy's first P-8I to land at Arakkonam today
By SP's Special Correspondent

May 15, 2013: The Indian Navy's first P-8I, manned by an Indian Navy flight crew, lands in Arakkonam today. The first of eight Boeing Defense P-8Is that was delivered to the Indian Navy in December last year at in the Western United States, will be part of a new squadron. Operationally, the P-8I will first augment and then progressively replace the in-service Russian Tu-142 fleet. The INS Rajali naval air station has already been provided with infrastructure to handle the new P-8I fleet.

The Indian Navy contracted for eight P-8Is with the US Government in January 2009 at a total contract price of $2.1-billion, and is concluding paperwork to exercise options for four more aircraft. Boeing believes the Indian Navy may require a fleet of 30 aircraft to fulfil its maritime surveillance requirements on the platform. Two critical pieces of hardware on the P-8I absent on the base P-8A Poseidon for the US Navy are an aft-radar and magnetic anomaly detector to detect sub-surface activity.