US military aircraft refuels at Indian base for first time under defence pact
The aircraft landed over a week ago at an airstrip in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for refuelling under an agreement signed between India and US.
Editorial Staff
US military aircraft refuels at Indian base for first time under defence pact New Delhi: Amid tensions between India and China, the US Navy’s long-range anti-submarine warfare and maritime surveillance aircraft, P-8 Poseidon, carried out its maiden refuelling from India’s strategic base in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Sources said the refuelling happened towards the end of last month and was carried out under the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), signed between India and the US in 2016. While the LEMOA was operationalised in 2017 with the US Navy tanker refuelling an Indian Navy ship in the Sea of Japan, this is the first time an American aircraft had done so. In September, an Indian ship had been refuelled through a US tanker. A defence source said, “The flight landed over a week back at an airstrip in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for refuelling under the #LEMOA. The aircraft was present at the base for a few hours before resuming its journey.” While it was a simple refuelling, the message of a US anti-submarine and surveillance aircraft refuel…
