South Korea Receives First P-8A Poseidon MPA

On February 3rd, Boeing released a video of the P-8A for the ROK Navy, which was captured at its factory in Washington state. Six P-8As are expected to be delivered to the Korean Navy from this summer to 2023, after it was chosen as the next multi-mission maritime aircraft and the US State Department approved FMS (Foreign Military Sales) of six P-8As to South Korea in September 2018 for an estimated $2.1 billion.

The ROK Navy has already established the 6th Air Wing’s maritime patrol aircraft squadron 61.

The ‘P-8 Poseidon,’ also known as the “submarine killer”, is an anti-submarine patrol aircraft developed by Boeing in 2009 based on its B737-800 aircraft. It is equipped with 129 sonobuoys that detect underwater activities of hostile submarines, as well as offensive weapons such as the Harpoon air-to-surface missile and torpedoes.

The US Navy’s P-8A has a long-range X-band radar AN/APY-10 that detects maritime enemy targets within 470 kilometers, as well as surveillance and patrol assets such as a digital electronic optic/infrared (EO/IR) sensor L-2 Wescam MX-20HD that films targets from tens of kilometers away in high resolution, and several electronic warfare equipments.

Once the ROK Navy receives the new six P-8A aircraft from Boeing, the ROK Navy will have a total of 22 operable maritime patrol aircraft, including the eight P-3Cs and eight P-3CKs currently in service. In 2030, these P-3Cs and P-3CKs will be replaced by new aircraft.

© 2022, GDC. © GDC and www.globaldefensecorp.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to www.globaldefensecorp.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.