Thu, Jan 26, 2006
Variant of Navy's 737-MMA
Boeing announced Wednesday plans for a new 737 signals
intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft to be used for airborne
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and also advanced
network centric communications. The new SIGINT aircraft concept is
a variant of Boeing's 737-based P-8A Multi-mission Maritime
Aircraft (photos below), which is currently being developed for the
US Navy.
"We think this affordable variant not only provides the US
Defense Department with options for current and future airborne ISR
requirements, but also is adaptable to any International SIGINT
mission sets," said Tony Parasida, Boeing vice president for
Maritime Systems.
The Boeing 737 SIGINT variant will have increased mission
capability, operational readiness and combat radius relative to
legacy aircraft. The design also has built-in growth capacity so
payload capacity can easily be increased or upgraded to accommodate
future customer requirements.
"A key advantage of this new program is that the 737 SIGINT
aircraft will leverage the P-8A's advanced mission system
architecture, mature design, and contractor logistics support and
training systems approach. For customers that means reduced
operating and maintenance costs over the entire life cycle of the
system."
Boeing's Maritime Systems Industry team, currently working on
the P-8A program, will be involved with the 737 SIGINT variant as
well. Additional partners likely will be added to the team to help
address future customer requirements.
P-8A team members include Northrop Grumman [NYSE: NOC], Raytheon
[NYSE: RTN], Smiths Aerospace and CFM International. The P-8A -- a
military derivative of the 737-800 aircraft -- is the Navy's
replacement platform for the P-3C. Its primary mission is to
provide what the company terms "persistent" anti-submarine
warfare.
A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems
is one of the world's largest space and defense businesses.
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