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New Delhi: The Indian Navy will acquire 12 more long range maritime reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft in addition to the 12 Boeing P-8I aircraft already ordered or being ordered to boost its eye in the sky over the country's territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.
Indian Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma told that the force was satisfied with the progress of the first eight Indian P-8Is being built by Boeing under a 2009 order and that a second order for four more aircraft was being processed to be placed within the current fiscal ending March 2012.
At a later date, it was being planned to acquire 12 more LRMR aircraft for offshore surveillance and protection of the Indian waters and interests, bringing the total to 24.
The exact type of the 12 additional aircraft would be worked out later.
India's coastline exceeds 7,500 km, besides which there are several island territories and economic interests off the east and west coasts.
Hitherto, the Indian Navy has been using old, Soviet-vintage maritime reconnaissance aircraft. But, after the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai, the government cleared the first eight P-8Is within three months of the horror. Four more were cleared earlier this year.
In fact, it was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself who had asked the defence ministry to ensure the navy's modernisation after the 26/11 attack, in which 10 Pakistani terrorists easily managed to infiltrate into Mumbai and killed 166 people and injured more than 300.
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