Panaji: A long-range maritime surveillance Boeing P8A aircraft of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) arrived at INS Hansa, Goa on Monday on a three-day exercise with the Indian Navy. The coordinated operations began on Tuesday.

In a brief statement, the Indian Navy said that the P-8A will undertake coordinated operations with the Boeing P-8I of the Indian Navy.

“The P-8I squadron, INAS 316 at INS Hansa will interact and host the RAAF P8A aircraft. The RAAF P8A and the P-8I aircraft will undertake coordinated operations involving anti-submarine warfare and surface surveillance from June 7 to 9,” said the Indian Navy.

India and Australia are members of the Quadrilateral security dialogue, known as the Quad, a strategic security dialogue between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States that aims at an open Indo-Pacific region.

In April, the Indian Navy had deployed a P-8I aircraft to Darwin, Australia for similar coordinated operations in the northern Australian waters.

The P-8A is a militarized version of the Boeing 737-800ERX. Indian Navy’s P-8I is a slightly modified variant of the American Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraft. The Indian and Australian P8 aircraft have been regularly undertaking coordinated operations as part of various bilateral and multilateral naval warfare exercises like Malabar and AUSINDEX.