08th January 2025 (14 Topics)
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Sonobuoys
Context
India and the U.S. have announced a significant collaboration aimed at enhancing Undersea Domain Awareness (UDA) for the Indian Navy through the co-production of U.S. sonobuoys. This collaboration is the latest in a series of defense technology partnerships between the two countries, responding to growing concerns over China's expanding naval presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
Key Highlights:
- Partnership Development: The Ultra Maritime (UM), a U.S.-based leader in undersea warfare capabilities, and Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), an Indian state-owned defense company, will co-produce sonobuoys for the Indian Navy.
- The project is aligned with the S.-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (ICET), launched in May 2022, and will adhere to "Make in India" principles by manufacturing these sonobuoys both in the U.S. and India.
- Technology Focus: The collaboration will focus on developing sonobuoy technologies tailored for the unique acoustic environment of the Indian Ocean. This will include solutions for wide-area search and multi-static active solutions, enhancing the ability to detect submarines and underwater threats.
- The sonobuoys produced under this partnership will be designed for interoperability, allowing them to be used seamlessly by the S. Navy, the Indian Navy, and other allied countries' naval assets, including P-8, MH-60R, and MQ-9B Sea Guardian aircraft.
- While India already operates the American sonobuoys from the P-8I maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft, the fresh deal is for the MH-60 Romeo helicopters, also procured from the US.
- The sonobuoys are a mix of active and passive capabilities, and are expendable, meaning they are meant for use only once.
- Use of sonobuoys would make these aircraft more potent in carrying out anti-submarine warfare as they raise the probability of detection of enemy submarines.
- There are three types of sonobuoys the Indian Navy is procuring:
- AN/SSQ-53G high-altitude anti-submarine warfare (HAASW) sonobuoys
- AN/SSQ-62F HAASW
- AN/SSQ-36
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Fact Box: About Sonobuoys
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