Boeing to upgrade avionics and network-enabled weapons on Navy P-8A surveillance and maritime patrol jet
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. – U.S. Navy aerial surveillance experts are asking the Boeing Co. to provide upgrade kits to give 10 P-8A Poseidon surveillance and maritime patrol jet aircraft a network-ready open-systems avionics architecture and network-enabled weapons under terms of a $102.7 million order announced Wednesday.
Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., are asking the Boeing Defense, Space & Security segment in Seattle for P-8A Increment 3 retrofit A-kits for 10 existing P-8A aircraft. The order includes three retrofit kit A-kit installs.
The Poseidon's increment 3 focuses on network-ready open-systems electronics architecture and network-enabled weapons, and is part of the Navy's plan to replace its fleet of P-3 Orion turboprop maritime patrol aircraft with the Poseidon.
The Poseidon is a militarized version of the Boeing 737 single-aisle jetliner, while the much-older P-3 is a militarized version of the Lockheed Martin L-188 Electra four-engine turboprop passenger plan, which has been flying since the late 1950s.
The P-8A Poseidon increment 3 avionics retrofit kits will enable the aircraft to carry the Harpoon Block II+ anti-ship missile and Link 16 datalink, as well as communications upgrades.
The P-8A aircraft already in service will be retrofitted to the increment 3 standard with network-ready electronics and weapons. The P-8A is expected to have a completely upgraded software in time to become fully operational in 2023. The Australian air force has committed to acquiring 15 P-8A Poseidon aircraft.
Boeing has been developing, integrating, and testing increment 3 upgrade kits since June 2016 when the company won a $71.6 million order to do so.
On this order Boeing will do the work in Jacksonville, Fla., St. Louis, and Mesa, Ariz., and should be finished by November 2026. For more information contact Boeing Defense, Space & Security online at www.boeing.com/company/about-bds, or Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
