On March 27, the Navy delivered the first P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to Boeing [BA] due to be modified with Increment 3 Block 2 capabilities.
The Navy said these improved capabilities give a “significant upgrade to the P-8A airframe and avionics systems, and includes new airframe racks, radomes, antennas, sensors, and wiring.”
It also includes a new combat systems suite with improved computer processing, higher security architecture capability, a wide band satellite communication system, an ASW signals intelligence capability and more communications and acoustics systems to enhance search, detection and targeting capabilities.
The service said, once modified, aircraft like this one will be outfitted with all the anti-submarine warfare (ASW), anti-surface warfare (ASuW), and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities “outlined in the P-8A program’s evolutionary acquisition strategy.”
In March 2019, Naval Air Systems Command awarded Boeing a $326 million delivery order to develop, integrate and test these Increment 3 Block 2 capabilities on the P-8A (Defense Daily, March 22, 2019).
The modifications are set to start at Boeing’s Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul hangar at Cecil Airport in Jacksonville, Fla., and the first aircraft modification is due to be completed by January 2025.
The Navy plans future P-8A modifications to be implemented in a sequence of rapid capability insertion efforts building on this Increment 3 Block 2 baseline.
“Increment 3 Block 2 brings the capability that the P-8A was made for. These modifications will allow aircrews to search, locate and track the most advanced submarines in the world, enabling the fleet to pace the threat with the required capability and capacity to win the fight,” Capt. Erik Thomas, program manager for the Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft program office, PMA-290, said in a statement.
The Navy’s fleet squadrons possess 119 P-8As total as of March, with the fleet having flown over 503,783 flight hours with over 440,558 landings.