New Delhi: The American Navy handed over two of its ‘Romeo’ helicopters to the Indian Navy on Saturday after the Indian crew completed its training in the US.
The deal of 24 MH-60 helicopters was made during Trump’s visit to India in 2019. India will soon receive the rest of the 22 anti-submarine helicopters soon.
The American government had given the order to the helicopter manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corporation for 24 helicopters for India. Since the American Navy is overlooking this deal from their side, they have decided to hand over three of the aircraft from its crew to the indian navy.
The two of those three MH-60 Helicopters were given to the Indian Navy as Lockheed makes the same helicopters for the American Navy as well.
The handover took place during a ceremony at the North Island Naval base of the American Navy. The Indian Ambassador to America, Taranjit Singh Sandhu was also present at the ceremony.
In February 2019, when the then-American President Donald Trump visited India, the deal of these 24 MH-60 R helicopters was sealed under the Foreign Military Sales. The deal cost India 2.6 billion dollars which amounts to Rs 21,000 crores.
The American Navy handed over the two helicopters early so that the Indian Navy can begin its training as soon as possible. As per the reports, the other 22 helicopters will also be handed over soon.
The MH-60 Romeo helicopters manufactured by Lockheed Martin have an anti-submarine and anti-surface (ship) system which is used during warfare. It can also be used in search and rescue operations.
The Indian Navy needed these new anti-submarine helicopters as it earlier used the Sea King helicopters which were very old. These Sea King helicopters are deployed at INS Vikramaditya.
Besides this, the Indian-made aircraft carrier warship that is being manufactured at the Cochin Shipyard, Vikrant would also require these MH-60 Romeo helicopters.
These Romeo helicopters have features like a hellfire missile system, rocket, and torpedo launchers. If needed they can go up to several hundred meters deep in the water and destroy other submarines.
These helicopters can prove to be really helpful against Pakistan and China in the Indian ocean.
Source: ABPLive
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