The production of the firm BAE Systems at its facilities in Nashua, New Hampshire and in Austin, Texas, will increase its production after receiving a US$ 95 million contract awarded by the United States Navy (US Navy) for the acquisition of new electronic countermeasures pods for its P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft.
The signing of the contract followed a previous agreement between the US Navy and BAE Systems for the creation and manufacturing of rapid response air defense. The prototype design was presented in 2021 and after passing the corresponding tests it was able to be launched on the market.
Don Davidson, Director of Advanced Compact Electronic Warfare Solutions at BAR Systems, indicated that: “We are working closely with the U.S. Navy to deliver innovative solutions to protect this critical, high-value aircraft. We rapidly prototyped a highly capable system using proven technology to defend against guided air-to-air and surface-to-air threats..”
The integration of new equipment will have the purpose of protecting against missiles and other dangers that maritime aircraft may suffer during their patrol and surveillance missions. Countermeasure pods are an important element in electronic warfare, since thanks to the use of the electromagnetic spectrum they have the ability to early detect threats and tools to counter them.
The pods are based on a flexible design and open architecture, both characteristics providing the aircraft with compatibility in case future countermeasures instruments are incorporated. The new addition will allow the P-8A Poseidon to operate in increasingly complex theaters of operations with the increasing presence of air defense systems of various types and ranges.
There are currently two hundred P-8 Poseidons in service or under contract in nine countries, including the United States Navy (its main user), Royal Australian Air Force, Indian Navy, British Royal Air Force, Royal Air Force Norway, the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the Republic of Korea Navy. Soon, the German Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force will also become operators of the aircraft. In the German case, five units had originally been requested, which will be expanded to eight thanks to the allocation of additional resources by Parliament. For its part, Canada confirmed the selection of the Poseidon to replace its current CP-140 Aurora, foreseeing the acquisition of fourteen units.
Illustrative images
You may be interested: Boeing will modernize the P-8A Poseidon of the Royal Australian Air Force to the Increment 3 Block 2 version
