Originally Posted by
Asturias56
Back on topic - there are 9 aircraft on order - how many do people think are necessary?
The Japanese - an island nation, reliant on maritime trade, but without SSBNs or CVs, think that they need more than 70 MPAs. They had about 80 P-3s, and are procuring about 70 new P-1s.
One would really wonder whether our tiny fleet of P-8As are adequate, and whether they should not be augmented by an aircraft like Saab's Swordfish. At roughly half the cost, it could add numbers, and isn't markedly less capable.