CONTEXT:

· Indian Navy deployed its P-8I long-range maritime surveillance aircraft for anti-piracy sorties from Salalah in Oman to patrol the Gulf of Aden.

·   It is an expansion of its Mission Based Deployments (MBD) in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

· The P-8I is long-range anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft capable of broad-area, maritime and littoral operations.