Indian Coast Guard to procure six maritime aircraft

AIRCRAFT
New Delhi, Jun 19 (PTI) The Indian Coast Guard is
planning to procure six Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft
for enhancing surveillance in coastal areas and country's
Exclusive Economic Zone.
The sea guarding force has expressed its intent to
procure these aircraft soon after it suspended its over
two-year-long tender process for acquiring an equal number of
Medium Range Maritime Reconnaissance (MRMR) aircraft.
"We are looking to procure six multi-mission aircraft
for our aviation wing," a Coast Guard official said here.
Initial steps for the acquisition process have already
been taken and the global tender for procuring these aircraft
would be issued soon.
Officials said the aircraft should have both air to
air and maritime surveillance radars to keep an eye on both
airborne and seaborne threats and also help in locating,
identifying and tracking them.
The force wants the aircraft to have the capability to
integrate the latest Active Electronic Scanned Array radar
which will allow it to have a 360 degree coverage of areas
being scanned.
The Coast Guard also wants the aircraft to have the
capability to mount the Ordinance Factory Board manufactured
12.7 mm machine gun as its fire power.
In the MRMR tender, the Coast Guard had already
completed trials of two foreign aircraft including the Russian
bereiv-200 maritime amphibious aircraft and the Canadian
Bombardier aircraft.
The force depends on its fleet of Dornier maritime
aircraft for surveillance over the coastal areas and the EEZ.
Coast Guard is procuring different types of
helicopters and fixed wing aircraft for enhancing its
surveillance capabilities to prevent any 26/11-type attacks.
After the attacks on Mumbai, the present force levels
and manpower of Coast Guard are planned to be doubled by
graduated procurement, with proportionate infrastructure
development and augmentation of trained manpower.
Nine more Coast Guard stations are likely to be set up
by 2012, with each of them having two boats to undertake
search and rescue, close coast patrol and respond to fast
developing situations at sea.
The Navy is also strengthening its aerial coverage of
the maritime zone and has already placed orders for eight P-8I
anti-submarine warfare aircraft and is in the process of
acquiring additional four of them. PTI AJD
SSB