India - PM's very own Air Force One is here

version of the US president's "Air Force One" has landed. From now on, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh can breathe easy as he gets a plush new, highly secure office high in the sky, much like President George Bush.

The first of three wide-bodied VVIP Boeing Business Jets, ordered in October 2005 at a cost of Rs 937 crore, touched down at the Palam airport here on Saturday night to join IAF's elite communication squadron, which ferries the President, the PM and other top dignitaries. "The other two should also come, one after the other, in the next 45 days," said an official.

The highly customised planes — which come with sophisticated self-protection suites (SPS), encrypted satellite communication facilities and advanced navigation aids — will ensure the PM and his entourage can fly in far more comfortable, and more importantly, secure environs than ever before.

The delivery of the VVIP planes, initially scheduled for June as earlier reported by TOI , was somewhat delayed due to Washington's insistence on proper safeguards for the hush-hush security equipment, like the SPS, fitted on them.

With India on course to sign the End-Use Verification Agreement (EUVA) and the Communication Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) with the US, the fears of hush-hush security equipment like the self-protection suites (SPS) in the aircraft have been allayed now.

As per US laws, a country procuring American defence equipment must negotiate pacts like EUVA and CISMOA to minimise security risks to US and its allies as well as ensure compliance with sensitive technology control requirements.

"The two pacts need to be signed since we are buying a lot of defence equipment from the US now, like the deal finalized for six C-130J Super Hercules aircraft for $962.45 million," said a senior official.

"We don't have problems with safeguards when sensitive technology is being transferred to us but we don't want anything which is intrusive and unnecessary. We have a spotless record in not letting high-technology leak to third parties," he added. Though not as technically sophisticated as Bush's Air Force One, the three Indian planes do have potent systems to tackle incoming "hostile" missiles or other airborne threats.

Desi Air Force One can fool a missile

The SPS includes "radar warning receivers" to alert the plane that a hostile radar has "painted" it and a missile may be on the way. The "missile-approach warning systems" and "counter-measure systems" will then help the planes take automatic evasive action by shooting metal chaff to "fool" radar-guided missiles and flares to throw heat-seeking missiles off the track.

The aircraft, in fact, can even fool an incoming missile through the projection of a "ghost image". There are also enough advanced electronic counter-measures on board to jam hostile radars. The PM will have a full-fledged executive office and bedroom to himself on board, apart from a secure communication chamber and facilities to host around 50 guests. This, in fact, had come in for some sharp criticism in the latest Comptroller and Auditor General report, which had slammed the UPA government for the VVIP jets deal since it "deviated from laid-down procedures and well recognized norms of propriety".