Delays And Cost Challenges Beset Airborne ASW

The U.S. Navy's Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) aircraft made the headlines in March when aircraft of patrol squadron VP-16, deployed to Kadena AB in Okinawa, supported the search for the vanished Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

But although the P-8A is the largest and most costly aircraft ever built for ASW, its ability to detect submarines at long range is inferior to that of the P-3C Orion, which it is intended to replace.

Meanwhile, France has had to accept a second reduction in its future ASW aircraft fleet. It had hoped to modernize 18 of its 22 Dassault ATL2 long-range patrol aircraft, but has had to settle for 15.

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