- The Indian and U.S navies has held an anti-submarine warfare exercise. The exercise involved P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and its Indian variant which is the P-8I Neptune advanced maritime patrol aircraft near Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.The aircraft were joined by the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance.
- The military exercise focused on (a)anti-submarine warfare training, (b)information sharing and (c)coordination between maritime patrol aircraft and surface combatants.
- It was the first bilateral anti-submarine warfare exercise since the signing of a Communications,Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) between the two countries.
- COMCASA allows the U.S. military to transfer secure communications and data equipment to India.Prior to the conclusion of the agreement, the United States had to remove advanced communication equipment from all military platforms sold to India such as the P-8I Neptune.Additionally, the United States had to place less secure temporary systems on Indian units so the two sides could communicate during bilateral exercise.
- The P-8A/I is the military variant of Boeing’s Next-Generation 737-800 commercial aircraft and is considered as one of the world’s most advanced anti-submarine warfare aircraft currently in service.Further,the Indian version of the aircraft includes the Telephonics APS-143 OceanEye aft radar system and a cutting-edge magnetic anomaly detector which is not installed on U.S. Navy P-8A aircraft.
