India, Japan to finalise US-2 amphibious aircraft deal during Shinzo Abe's visit

New Delhi: India is expected to seal the deal to buy the US-2 amphibious aircraft from Japan during Shinzo Abe visit.

India will buy 12 US-2 ShinMaywa aircrafts in flyway condition and another 18 will be jointly manufactured in India.

Notably, last year, China had reacted angrily to reports that Japan plans to sell weapons to India at cheaper prices, saying that such a move is disgraceful.

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and his Japanese counterpart Itsunori Onodera on September 5 held wide-ranging talks, as part of the India-Japan annual defence ministerial dialogue in Tokyo during which issues relating to the US-2 amphibious aircraft also figured.

Features of US-2 amphibious aircraft

- An “amphibian aircraft” is one that can land on either land or water.

- Excellent Short Take Off and Landing (STOL) capabilities enable the US-2 to take off and land in much shorter distances - both on land and on water.

- Land on rough seas with wave height of 3m. Saving lives under harsh conditions.

- High-powered .engines / propellers using the latest designs.

- The US-2 requires only one-fourth of the distance that commercial airliners require for takeoff and landing. An additional advantage is that, as an amphibian aircraft, the US-2 does not require runway construction.

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe arrived in Ahmedabad on Wednesday on a two-day visit to India during which he will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and both will lay the foundation stone of the ambitious Rs 1.08 lakh crore ($17 billion) Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project.

This will be the fourth annual summit between Modi and Abe, where they are expected to review the progress in the multifaceted cooperation between India and Japan under the framework of their Special Strategic and Global Partnership.

(With inputs from www.shinmaywa.co.jp)