Navy spending $1.5 billion to buy another 13 P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md., 28 Aug. 2015. The U.S. Navy is ordering 13 P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol jets from the Boeing Co., as well as long-lead items for another 20 Poseidon aircraft -- under terms of a $1.5 billion contract modification announced late Thursday.
Of these new aircraft, 25 will be for the U.S. Navy and eight will be for the government of Australia. The P-8 is a militarized version of the Boeing 737 single-aisle jetliner hardened for long-range maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missions.
Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., are asking the Boeing Defense, Space & Security segment in Seattle to build nine Navy full-rate production (FRP) lot II P-8A aircraft, and four Royal Australian Air Force FRP lot II P-8A aircraft.
In addition, the Navy is asking Boeing to buy long-lead parts to build 20 P-8A FRP lot III aircraft -- 16 for the Navy and four for the government of Australia. Long-lead items involve system components that require the longest time to build, which could delay overall system production if money isn't allocated for production early in the process.
The contract modification also calls for Boeing to take care of unknown obsolescence issues, design changes, obsolescence monitoring, program management, two advance airborne sensor A-kits, and lifetime buys of electronic components in the P-8A's electronic support measures systems.
Related: Navy makes plans to order 29 new P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol jets for U.S. and Australia
Ultimately, the Navy plans to buy 108 P-8A aircraft from Boeing to replace the service’s fleet of 196 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, which are approaching the end of operational life. The P-3 is a version of the Lockheed Martin Electra four-engine turboprop aircraft.
The P-8A is designed to operate at extremely low altitudes over the ocean during close-in searches for potentially hostile submarines. The P-8A is designed to withstand the rigors of low-altitude turbulence and exposure to salt spray. The P-8 is scheduled to replace the Lockheed Martin P-3 Orion maritime patrol turboprop aircraft.
Navy officials plan to use the P-8A in tandem with the Northrop Grumman RQ-4N Triton Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) -- a maritime-patrol version of the Global Hawk long-range surveillance UAV. Plans call for using BAMS to detect potentially hostile submarines and surface ships, and upon detection, to call in the P-8A to take a closer look or to attack hostile vessels with torpedoes and missiles.
Boeing is building the Poseidon aircraft at its factory in Renton, Wash. The 737 fuselage and tail sections will be built by Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kan., then transferred to Renton where all structural features are incorporated in sequence during fabrication and assembly.
The P-8A’s flight management system and the stores management system have been developed by GE Aviation Systems in Grand Rapids, Mich. The cabin has as many as seven operator consoles.
The Poseidon’s MX-20HD digital electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) multi-spectral sensor turrets come from L-3 Communications Wescam in Burlington, Ontario. The MX-20HD is gyro-stabilized and can have as many as seven sensors, including infrared, CCDTV, image intensifier, laser rangefinder, and laser illuminator.
The aircraft has the upgraded APS-137D(V)5 maritime surveillance radar and signals intelligence (SIGINT) system from the Raytheon Co. Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) segment in McKinney, Texas.
The APS-137D(V)5 radar, which is installed on the P-8’s enlarged nose fairing, provides synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for imaging stationary ships and small vessels, coastal and overland surveillance, and high-resolution imaging synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) for imaging surfaced submarines and fast surface vessels operating in coastal waters.
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The P-8A will have the CAE Inc. advanced integrated magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) system, and eventually may use air-deployable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to handle magnetic anomaly detection. The Navy plans to arm the P-8A with the MK 54 torpedo.
On this contract Boeing will do the work in Seattle; Baltimore; Greenlawn, N.Y.; Cambridge, England; North Amityville, N.Y.; Rockford, Ill.; Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.; Salt Lake City; and other U.S. locations, and should be finished by December 2018.
For more information contact Boeing online at www.boeing.com/defense/maritime-surveillance, 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.
