India appears closer to acquiring P-3C aircraft to replace its crumbling ex-Soviet maritime patrol airplanes. India has been negotiating with the US for several years for the purchase of P-3 aircraft, and as recently as November, 2004, the US had offered eight P-3B airplanes for an estimated $894 million under the foreign military sales (FMS) program, to include training and maintenance support. However, India pushed back with a demand for the the more modern P-3C, despite the US Navys shortage of airworthy charlies due to cascading maintenance and operational issues. Pakistan Indias nemesis has several P-3C aircraft (though not in the best of repair) and last year indicated a desire to buy eight P-3C Update I aircraft in an effort to both improve coastal security and have an aircraft that can carry US-made weapons. The US Navy operates the P-3C Update III.5.
The P-3B TACNAVMOD retired from the US Navy in the early 1990s have less modern tactical gear than current P-3C models but have significantly fewer hours on the airframes. The US Navy, in the past several years, has been forced to ground 40 percent of the then-P-3C fleet because of maintenance issues and anxiously awaits the first replacement Boeing Multimission Maritime Aircraft due to join the fleet in 2012-2014.
In March, 2005, at a meeting with US officials, Indian officials said that they country remained firm in their desire to obtain ten P-3C aircraft, if a deal can be made that includes written assurance of after-sale service, supply of spares, and maintenance, despite the fact that the US reportedly gives no other foreign buyer such a guarantee. Statements by both Indian and US officials credit international efforts in the recent tidal-wave relief operation for helping the two countries find more mutual ground and become more trusting of one another. A recent visit to India by representatives of over one dozen US defense contractors was reportedly more warmly received than had been the case in the past.
Of course, Pakistans recent efforts to quintuple its P-3 fleet to ten aircraft and increase the size of its submarine fleet is likely a big reason India is so keen on its own maritime patrol aircraft upgrade. Pakistan operates French Agosta 90-B, Agosta 70, and Daphne-class submarines, as well as MG-110 midget subs for special operations. In 2003, Pakistan bragged that in acquiring P-3s, it gained the capability for stand-off weapons launch at the coastal border between itself and India along the Arabian Sea. India currently operates two aging and increasingly unreliable fleets of ex-Soviet Il-38 Mays and Tu-142 Bears. The Mays a quickly converted counterpart to the P-3 and never the most capable aircraft -- are literally falling apart, and an upgrade for the Bears has foundered on bad blood between Russia and Israel, both of which were to have been involved in upgrading the aircraft. K.B. Sherman
