L3Harris wins P-8A Poseidon support contract
L3Harris will support Boeing P-8A MPAs for almost all of this decade under a contract agreed with the US Navy for that service’s aircraft but which will also include international users of the platform.
Announcing the contract award, L3Harris said it would “perform depot maintenance, repair and overhaul support of the 135 aircraft P-8A Poseidon fleet”.
It also announced that work would begin this year at L3Harris’ aircraft modification facility in Waco, Texas, and continue through to September 2029.
The aircraft specialises in maritime patrol and reconnaissance, long-range anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
It is in use with or ordered by eight international customers, with Australia and India both operating 12, New Zealand four, Norway five and the UK nine. South Korea has ordered six with three delivered, Canada has ordered 14 and Germany has ordered eight with both countries yet to receive aircraft.
Saudi Arabia has planned to buy as many as eight aircraft, India has been in line to potentially purchase another six aircraft and the platform has also been in the running to meet a Turkish requirement.
Related Programmes in Defence Insight
Related Equipment in Defence Insight
More from Air Warfare
-
Mayman Aerospace’s RAZOR drone completes first round of test flights
The successful test flights of RAZOR were undertaken at a military base in southern California, where seven autonomous mission sets were completed. Additional test flights have been scheduled for later this year.
-
What the retirement of the KC-10 Extender means for the US Air Force
The tanker will be replaced by the KC-46A Pegasus, which is a more capable platform in terms of avionics, but with less payload capacity.
-
Northrop Grumman selected to develop hypersonic missile interceptor
Northrop Grumman beat out Raytheon for next stage of the Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) weapon with the deal described as marking “a turning point for hypersonic glide phase defence”.