TinWing said:Indeed, there have been MPA proposals for the A320 family, very similar to the P-8A. Germany's purchase of the 8 surplus Dutch P-3Cs pretty much put an end to any serious effort.....
Thorvic said:To be honest i alway felt that BAE should have taken that role within Airbus for both the Nimrod replacement and Tanker replacement as the Brits have much greater experience of both roles. But BAE was too busy in the US to take the lead in this area. But Boeings involvement with the BAE Nimrod MRA4 certainly helped them with the P-8 proposal.
Thorvic said:Yeap EADS Spain got the rights to do develop the military variants of Airbus, the A330 Tanker and the MR version to replace the Atlantics of Italy & Germany. As Tin Wing said the Germans went with the Dutch Orions as a simpler measure leaving Italy to either soldier on with Atlantic or get used orions from the US until the P8 enters production.
To be honest i alway felt that BAE should have taken that role within Airbus for both the Nimrod replacement and Tanker replacement as the Brits have much greater experience of both roles. But BAE was too busy in the US to take the lead in this area. But Boeings involvement with the BAE Nimrod MRA4 certainly helped them with the P-8 proposal.
PMN1 said:Any specs to go with the drawings - payload etc?
Deino said:Oh what a pitty !
Video:Airbus Defence and Space said:Airbus evaluates an A320neo multi-mission version
The variant - designated A320neo M³A (Modular Multi-Mission Aircraft) - would be designed to fulfill a range of C4ISR roles, including maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare.
https://youtu.be/faFxUoGt2WU
India's Defence Ministry, on Thursday, greenlit the development of six new Airborne Early Warning Control (AEW&C or AWACS) planes to be built by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The AWACS will, reportedly, be fitted on modified Airbus A320 jets operated by the national carrier, Air India.
Livefist learns that the A320 based AEW&C platform will sport a derivative of the dorsal antenna system fitted on the Netra jets, and not likely a radome solution as has been speculated since the news broke Wednesday. This, however, is still unclear. In the words of a scientist familiar with the program, it will involve “trying past experience with additional features”.
That post just seems to be talking about the CC-150 Polaris replacement, which is a tanker-transport, not MR.In an interesting development, there now seems to be a dedicated MR version of the A330, based on the MRTT. I suspect the mission systems will be mostly based on those developed for use on the A320neo M3A.