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Old 30th Jul 2011, 12:13
  #231 (permalink)  
Roland Pulfrew
 
Join Date: Aug 1998
Location: England
Posts: 1,929
Received 7 Likes on 4 Posts
I'm amazed how many still support an MPA strategy that so catastrophically hit the wall.
keesje

As has been pointed out numerous times, the MPA strategy did not "hit the wall". Our Govt, as did yours, decided for different reasons to give up LONG range maritime patrol aircraft. The requirement for a LONG range MPA still exists in the UK. It exists in the USA and they are procuring the P8, the Russians still operate the Bear F; even the Chinese and Indian militaries have recognised the requirement for LRMPA and the Indians have 16 P8s on order. So according to you all of these countries have got it wrong.

The plastic toys you suggest may be able to do the long bit (in the case of Global Hawk), they might even be able to open water ASuW with nice radars, but most of your suggestions are littoral at best. With GH (designed for high altitude ops) just how do you suggest that it will be capable of carrying sufficient, suitable ASW sensors? With how much of a redesign? And at what cost? Where will the ASW weapons be fitted and at what cost/impact upon performance? Your Emb 145 looks lovely, on paper; however, as the UK has discovered with ASTOR/Sentinel, sticking a large fairing on a small biz-jet comes with its own, significant, expensive problems.

If you want coastal patrol aircraft there are lots out there that fit the bill already, but for deep water ASW, well there are the P8 and the world's ugliest aircraft (the Japanese purpose designed P1). I for one am a sceptic on the capabilities of the P8 (when it first enters service). After that you are into second hand aircraft modified for the role. As many on here have pointed out there are no UAVs that can do the task, there are unlikely to be any UAVs in the forseeable future that can do the ASW task and UAVs aren't cheap - not when you add in all of the C2 required to control them.

As someone who has specialised in both LRMP and AAR (not at the same time), your design might be able to do one task, or the other, but not both; the missions are simply mutually exclusive.

Last edited by Roland Pulfrew; 30th Jul 2011 at 15:57. Reason: spolling
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