In an effort to make its P-8A Poseidon Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMMA) more survivable to modern battlefield threats, the US Navy just finalised a $95 million contract with BAE Systems for the delivery of electronic warfare (EW) protection systems.
The EW protection solution offered by BAE Systems are deployed in pods that can be carried under the wing of the P-8A. These pods internally combine a variety of sub systems integrated under an open architecture format in order to easily be upgraded with newer third party functionnality. Yet the core of the pod packs BAE Systems’ Intrepid Shield / Bold Protection. A system which provides full spectrum Electronic Warfare capability in order to detect, identify and respond to most modern threats in real-time.
The majority of today’s battlefield threats operate on the electromagnetic and electro optical/infrared portion of the spectrum and are vying to defeat such a high value target as the P-8A Poseidon may represent.
In a normal tactical scenario unfolding in a contested environment, Electromagnetic or IR/Electro Optical threats are operated by an adversary in order to detect first, then identify, prior to engaging a targeted P-8A aircraft.
In order to make the P-8A more survivable, the EW pod must give the aircraft crews the ability to detect any signal tell-tale sign of adverse EM / EO / IR dtection and tracking. As a rule, detection of such adverse signals must occur the earliest as possible, the farthest away from the hostile source, hence offering the P-8A aircraft a potentially better operational range and more survivability. The US Navy operates the P-8A aircraft primarily as a submarine hunting platform, making the aircraft potentially highly sought after by opposing’ navies surface vessels and naval aviation.
The engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) contract signed between the US Navy and BAE Systems is a follow-up to a prior 2021 rapid-response contract that actually produced a prototype. During that phase, BAE Systems team designed, built, and successfully conducted full airworthiness and effectiveness testing.
BAE Systems will carry out the pod integration work on the US Navy’s P-8A aircraft at facilities in Nashua, New Hampshire and Austin, Texas.