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July is going to be an exciting month for the Indian Navy as they will be receiving three MH-60R Seahawks out of the 24 that are expected. The helicopters are going to be primed with torpedoes and missiles. The deal got the stamp of approval from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in February last year.
Sources have confirmed to various media houses that the dates are not yet confirmed but are in the process and the delivery of helicopters will be done to the United States of America first and will then be transported to India.
As these helicopters will be a new addition to the Indian Navy, pilots and ground crew are going through training to be able to fly them, and once trained, they will fly back to India with the new MH-60R Seahawks.
The 24 helicopters are expected to come through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route and are priced at approximately USD 2.6 billion. To maintain the balance of incoming helicopters, there is a timeline in place in the contract signed by the governments of India and the USA. All the helicopters are said to be delivered over a period of five years.
In addition to that helicopters, the package comprises spare parts, air-to-ground weapons support, and training of pilots and ground crew which is currently ongoing. The pandemic halted the training in 2020 and the training process was delayed.