Mehta also ruled out the susceptibility of Sea Harriers to accidents, saying they were perfectly good machines. 'The Sea Harriers have gone through a mid-life upgrade too,' he pointed out.

The Indian Navy's Sea Harriers, which were inducted in the early 1980, are deployed on India's lone aircraft carrier INS Viraat that is undergoing a life-extending refit at the Cochin Shipyard.

The Dabolim airport is the land base for the V/STOL (vertical/short take off and landing) jets, which were recently retrofitted to enable them to fire beyond visual range (BVR) missiles.