Australian P-8A and Australian Air Force team with Indian Navy P-8I and Indian Navy team

Panaji: A long-range maritime surveillance Boeing P8A aircraft of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) arrived at INS Hansa, Goa on Monday on a three-day exercise with the Indian Navy. The coordinated operations began on Tuesday.

In a brief statement, the Indian Navy said that the P8A will undertake coordinated operations with the Boeing P8I of the Indian Navy. “The P8I squadron, INAS 316 at INS Hansa, Goa, will interact and host the RAAF P8A aircraft. The RAAF P8A and the P8I aircraft will undertake coordinated operations involving anti-submarine warfare and surface surveillance from June 7 to 9,” said the Indian Navy.

India and Australia are members of the quadrilateral security dialogue, known as the Quad, a strategic security dialogue between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States that aims at an open Indo-Pacific region.

In April, the Indian Navy had deployed a P8I aircraft to Darwin, Australia for similar coordinated operations in northern Australian waters.

The P-8A is a militarised version of the Boeing 737-800ERX. Indian Navy’s P8I is a slightly modified variant of the American Boeing P8 Poseidon aircraft. The Indian and Australian P8 aircraft have been regularly undertaking coordinated operations as part of various bilateral and multilateral naval warfare exercises like MALABAR and AUSINDEX.