JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Boeing [BA] in July will begin flight-testing its internally-developed Multi-Mission Pod on the P-8 Poseidon anti-submarine warfare and maritime patrol aircraft, a new system that will offer customers more sensor options and potential mission sets they currently may not be able to carry out with the aircraft, a company official said.
The flight-testing program will take up to two years, John Spore, who works business development for Boeing’s P-8 efforts, told reporters at the company’s new maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities here. The company has been doing other testing of the pod, he said.
Boeing began work on the Multi-Mission Pod about eight years ago, saying at the time it has interest from international customers for the additional capabilities the system would give them (Defense Daily
, March 9, 2016).
The Multi-Mission Pod is integrated underneath the fuselage and just ahead of the wings and is “designed to carry sensors that are not organic to the P-8,” Spore said on June 27. The pod can be switched out “in a matter of hours,” he said.
The pod allows sensors to operate as a standalone capability or as part of the P-8’s integrated mission systems, according to Spore’s slide presentation. New and additional sensors can be added as technologies develop and to address new and emerging threats.
“We’re working now with customers to identify sensors that they would like us to include,” he said.
When Boeing introduced the Multi-Mission Pod in 2016, the company said it would combine communications intelligence, signals intelligence, and other capabilities. Spore said radars and “anything you can imagine as a sensor” [is possible] if it meets size, weight, power, and cooling requirements.
Boeing has nine customers for the P-8 with the U.S. Navy being the largest with 120 delivered and another 18 on contract or on order. Other customers include Australia, Canada, Germany, India, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. More than 168 P-8s are in service and more than 200 have been contracted for.
In addition to anti-submarine warfare, other P-8 missions include anti-surface warfare, armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, command, control and communications, stand-off targeting and strike support, search and rescue, and humanitarian and disaster relief.
The P-8 currently carries Mk-54 torpedoes and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. The Navy is doing integration testing of the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) with the P-8 to provide extended stand-off range, Spore said. That testing began in late 2023 and is expected to be finished later this summer if all goes well, he said. The aircraft will carry up to four LRASMs, he said.