The Indian Navy will receive three of the 24 MH-60 “Romeo” multi-role helicopters from the US in July, according to reports. India had signed a Rs 15,157 crore ($2.13 billion) contract with US for the Lockheed Martin choppers in February 2020 in a significant ramp-up of military capabilities for the Navy in detecting and destroying enemy submarines prowling in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
“The first batch of the Indian pilots has reached the US for training on the helicopters and we would be receiving three of these helicopters in the US in July,” Navy sources told ANI.
The training will be held on US soil in the city of Pensacola, Florida and will later continue in San Diego, California. The pilots will return to India next year in July.
The heavy-duty helicopters are equipped with APS-153(V) multi-mode radars, night-vision devices as well as armed with Hellfire missiles, MK-54 torpedoes and precision-kill rockets. This would help the Navy in Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW) and C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance).
The chopper will replace the ageing Sea King helicopters, which the Navy acquired in 1978.
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