P-8I Gets Indian Sensor Technology
Aerospace Daily Dec 24, 2010 NEW DELHI — Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) has delivered the Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) Interrogator to Boeing for installation on the Indian navy’s P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance and antisubmarine warfare aircraft. Boeing will install the system during P-8I final assembly at its facility in Renton, Wash. The P-8I is a variant of the P-8A Poseidon developed for the U.S. Navy. “The delivery is another positive step in our industrial participation effort with India,”says Vivek Lall, head of Boeing Defense, Space & Security in India. Other items for the P-8I include BEL’s Data Link II communications system, Avantel’s mobile satellite system and the Electronic Corp.of India Ltd.’s speech secrecy system. Boeing will deliver the first of eight P-8I aircraft to India within 48 months of the original contract signing, which took place in January 2009. India is the first international P-8 customer. - Neelam Mathews