Boeing has finished installing the first example of a significant anti-submarine warfare (ASW) upgrade for the US Navy’s fleet of P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft.
Naval Air Systems Command on 21 February said Boeing finished modifying the inaugural P-8A with a package of technical improvements known as Increment 3 Block 2, which the navy has previously described as a “significant upgrade” to the twinjet’s airframe, avionics, onboard sensors and communications.
Work was completed at Boeing’s Cecil Field facility in Jacksonville, Florida. The jet (fleet number 562) will now undergo final functional checkouts of the newly installed systems, followed by ground and flight acceptance tests before returning to the navy for active service.
The work took approximately one year to complete.
Changes include new airframe racks, radomes, antennas, sensors and wiring that will deliver improved computer processing, a wide-band satellite communication system, an ASW signals-intelligence capability, a submarine track-management system and acoustics systems to enhance search, detection and targeting capabilities.
“Increment 3 Block 2 represents the baseline configuration the navy needs to address tomorrow’s high-end threat,” said US Navy Rear Admiral Adam Kijek said last March when the service shipped the P-8A to Boeing for upgrades.
The readying of an enhanced anti-submarine capability comes after the Pentagon’s top Indo-Pacific officer recently warned that China is rehearsing a campaign to forcibly bring Taiwan under its control.
“Their aggressive manoeuvres around Taiwan right now are not exercises as they call them,” said US Indo-Pacific Command chief Admiral Samuel Paparo at the Honolulu Defense Forum this month. “They are rehearsals for the forced unification of Taiwan to the mainland.”
Other current and former security officials speaking at the forum on background told FlightGlobal that China is receiving sophisticated quiet submarine technology from Russia in exchange for industrial and economic support for Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
Such submarine technology could play a role in any attempt by Beijing to isolate and annex Taiwan, a mission that if undertaken could begin with a naval blockade of the island, officials say.
Senior US officials, including former Indo-Pacific commander Admiral Phillip Davidson, have previously warned that Chinese premier Xi Jinping has ordered his military to be ready for such an operation by 2027 – with the intervening years now commonly referred to as the “Davidson Window”.
Enter the Increment 3 Block 2 upgrades, which the US Navy says will be critical to countering submarine threats.
“These modifications will allow aircrews to search, locate and track the most-advanced submarines in the world,” says Captain Erik Thomas, head of the navy’s programme office for maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft.
The navy says it views the Increment 3 Block 2 standard as a new baseline for the P-8A fleet, from which future upgrades will be rolled out “via a sequence of rapid capability insertion efforts”.
The US Navy had 122 Boeing 737-based P-8As in service at the start of 2025, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.
The twinjet is also in service with the UK Royal Air Force (nine), the Royal Australian Air Force (12), the Royal New Zealand Air Force (four), the Royal Norwegian Air Force (five), the South Korean navy (six) and the Indian navy (12).
Canada also plans to acquire up to 16 P-8As, while Germany has made commitments for eight aircraft.
