NEW DELHI – Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman cleared on Thursday a Rs1,950-crore project for buying full motion simulator from US defence firmBoeing to train aircrews for missions on the Indian Navy’s P-8I submarinehunter planes, a government spokesperson said.
The P-8I ‘training solution’ contract includes 10-year comprehensivemaintenance service.“It will help Indian Navy train and realistically rehearse forsophisticated missions involving P-8I aircraft, at a fraction of the costof live aircraft training,” the spokesperson said.
The navy operates a fleet of eight Boeing P-8I planes based at the NavalAir Station Rajali in Tamil Nadu. And four more P-8Is – a militaryderivative of the 737-800 commercial aircraft – are on order. The planes,a replacement for the Soviet-era Tu-142 fleet, are expected to be in navalservice beyond 2050.
The P-8I is the Indian Navy variant of the P-8A Poseidon operated by the USNavy.
Sitharaman also cleared a proposal to upgrade the army’s communicationsinfrastructure to effectively deal with advanced communications systemsbeing used by terrorist groups, the spokesperson said. The army will butlow intensity conflict electronic warfare system (LICEWS) from BharatElectronics for Rs 470 crore.