Coast Guard to hold trials for medium range patrol aircraft

NEW DELHI - With the need for patrolling and surveillance growing in these days of maritime terror, particularly after the 26/11 Mumbai attack, the Indian Coast Guard will soon begin trials for Medium Range Maritime Reconnaissance Aircraft (MRMR).

It is looking to procure six MRMRs, said an official of the Coast Guard.

We will soon be holding trials for the MRMRs, which we will be operating for the first time. The trials will take a couple of months to complete.

Two aircraft have been shortlisted for the nearly $1 billion deal.

Two maritime patrol aircraft have been shortlisted for the procurement. After trials spanning several months something will be finalised, the official added, requesting anonymity.

The aircraft shortlisted are the Russian Beriev Be-200 and the American Bombardier Q400.

The Beriev Be-200 Altair is a multipurpose amphibious aircraft designed by the Beriev Aircraft Co and manufactured by Irkut. It is marketed as being designed for fire fighting, search and rescue, maritime patrol, cargo and passenger transportation. It has a capacity of 12 tonnes (12,000 litres) of water, or up to 72 passengers.

A maritime patrol variant of the Bombardier Q400 is also well-suited to anti-submarine operations, fixed-wing search and rescue, utility transport and C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), an official explained.

The Indian Navy had last year contracted for six Boeing P-8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft. However, the Coast Guard will require less sophisticated equipment. The aircraft will need to have a range of over 500 nautical miles, and an endurance of around six hours.

The procurement of surveillance aircraft by the Coast Guard has been fasttracked to fill the gaps in coastal security, an issue that was catapulted to centrestage when 10 terrorists sneaked into Mumbai through its shoreline in November 2008 and unleashed three days of mayhem.

The primary missions of the aircraft are to be maritime surveillance, search and rescue, casualty evaluation, pollution detection, control and response, fisheries control, communications, and logistics duties.

The Coast Guard has projected force levels of 268 vessels (including 173 small patrol craft), 113 aircraft, 18 Nishant unmanned aerial vehicles and Aerostat and over-the-horizon radars by 2017, which is just a little over a decade away.

Included in these force levels are 60 helicopters, 35 Dornier-228 aircraft for coastal surveillance (an increase from the 24 aircraft currently in service), 11 medium-range reconnaissance aircraft, more than 40 interceptor boats and six deep-sea patrol vessels.