The Government of India has sanctioned on January 18, three new Naval Air Squadrons to be set up in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Besides this, the central Government has also sanctioned manpower towards manning additional aircraft in existing Dornier Surveillance Squadrons in Kerala and Andaman Islands. It is pertinent to mention that the contract for procurement of 12 Dornier aircraft was signed with HAL (Kanpur) on December 29, 2016, with delivery commencing in January 2019. This is a substantial contract for the indigenous HAL-built maritime surveillance version of the Dornier 228 aircraft. The new Dornier 228 aircraft being delivered under this contract are fitted with improved state-of-the-art sensors and equipment which includes glass cockpit, Advanced Surveillance Radar, ELINT, Optical sensors and networking features.