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Old 18th Jun 2008, 20:37
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Modern Elmo
 
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This P-8/737: The Navy was calling it a Multi Mission Maritime Aircraft in earlier press releases. It might a mistake to think of it -- or at least all P-8 variants -- as a narrowly specialized ASW platform.

Also, in addition to its nose radar, I read somewhere that the P-8 -- or some P-8's -- may be getting a ventrally mounted electronically scanned radar antenna looking to the left and right. ( This would be a narrow bulge several meters long behind the weapons bay, which has apparently been moved from behind the wing to in front.)

This radar would give the P-8 a functional capability similar to what the JSTARS aircraft does. This type of radar operation implies higher cruising altitude -- in other words, turbofans instead of turbprops.
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