The revelation made by the CAG puts a serious question mark on the utility of the Boeing spy planes as their main operational role is to track the presence of enemy vessels operating in or around Indian waters
New Delhi: A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report has found that the eight spy planes acquired for Rs 10,770 crore by the Indian Navy from the US firm Boeing can be tracked by anyone on the internet. This seriously compromises the secrecy of mission flights of the maritime force. The planes were acquired in an "incorrect" manner from Boeing.
The revelation made by the CAG puts a serious question mark on the utility of the planes as their main operational role is to track the presence of Chinese and Pakistani vessels operating in or around Indian waters. The problem is that such a tracking facility can easily expose the pattern or the deployment of the aircraft to the enemies.
“Even though the requirement of the Indian Navy of being secretive in their missions is mandatory, it was observed by the A squadron (December 2016) that the tracks were being generated on a particular website... As of February 2018, the aircraft continued to be tracked on the website, which compromises the secrecy of mission flights of the Indian Navy,” a report of the CAG said.
According to the government auditor, when it asked about the steps taken by the Navy to address this issue, the force said that it had taken up the matter with the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) to get the data removed from the website.
“This indicates that the facility extended by the website for the blocking of flight-tracking information has not been utilised by the Indian Navy till date,” the report said.
The entire deal signed under the UPA government in 2009 has now come under the scanner as it has emerged that Boeing was unduly favoured by the then administration and prices of the commercial bid of a Spanish firm were manipulated to help their US rivals get the contract.
A CAG report has suggested that the UPA government, in 2009, had awarded a contract for buying eight surveillance planes by allegedly favouring Boeing by declaring it the lowest bidder "incorrectly" in the tender worth over Rs 10,000 crore.
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