Indian Government is planning to procure 15 additional Airbus Defence and Space manufactured C-295 Military Transport Aircraft worth around Rs 18,000 Crores for the Indian Navy (IN) and Indian Coast Guard (ICG).
It has been reported that procurement plan is to buy 9 C-295s for the Navy and 6 for the Coast Guard and, subsequently to modify and outfit them with multi-mode radars, electro-optic cameras, and sonobuoys for high-sea surveillance missions.
The Spain based Airbus Defence and Space will modify the first two planes for maritime use; while the remaining are to be built at the Tata-Airbus facility in Vadodara, Gujarat, with the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) managing the overall project to equip them as Medium-Range Maritime Reconnaissance (MRMR) aircraft.
Both the IN and the ICG have been looking for new MRMR aircraft for the effective patrolling of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
Notably, the IN at present comprises of 12 Boeing manufactured P-8I aircraft for long-range reconnaissance missions, procured for US $3.2 Billion.
These P-8Is along with the two unarmed Sea Guardian drones leased from US based General Atomics patrol the outermost layer of the three-tier maritime surveillance grid.
