The second specially modified Boeing 777 aircraft, part of Air India One’s fleet for VVIP, which includes the president, vice president and prime minister, landed on Sunday.
The plane can fly between the US and India without having to stop for refueling.
The first modified aircraft had arrived on October 1 after taking more than a month; officials had cited certain “operational problems” with the aircraft.
The two aircraft, Boeing 777-300 ER, had joined the Air India fleet in 2018 and had been shipped to a Boeing facility in Dallas for customization.
The Center had dispatched a team of senior officials from the Indian Air Force and Air India to escort the aircraft back to India and assess the technical requirements.
The government has planned to acquire two specially modified Boeing-777 aircraft, capable of countering missile threats with their own missile defense system, called Infrared Countermeasures for Large Aircraft (LAIRCM) and Self-Protection Suites (SPS).
The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which had notified the US Congress of its decision to sell the defense system earlier this year, had set its cost at about 190 million. of dollars.
The modified aircraft is set to match the United States President’s Air Force One in terms of security measures.
Air India One is the call sign of any aircraft with the President or Prime Minister of India on board. The aircraft is operated as a VVIP flight by the Indian Air Force.
The new long-haul aircraft will be used exclusively by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.
Currently, the three dignitaries fly Air India’s Boeing 747 aircraft that the state airline deploys on commercial flights. These are temporarily reconfigured for dignitaries when they need to travel, and the call sign changes to Air India One.
The Boeing-747 planes that are rented from Air India for use by the three dignitaries are two decades old.
The modified aircraft will also have “Bharat” and India written along with the Ashoka emblem. The new aircraft have been configured to provide generous office space, meeting rooms, a wide range of communication systems and a section for handling medical emergencies.
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