#SDSR2015: A Replacement Maritime Patrol Aircraft For The UK?

For the last five years Britain has been without a Maritime Patrol Aircraft, leaving the UK’s nuclear deterrent potentially vulnerable to hostile surveillance and making it harder to track enemy submarines straying into UK waters.  

As part of the new Strategic Defence and Security Review the government is believed to be ready to commission a replacement aircraft for this vital task. 

For more than 30 years the old Nimrod MR2 was the RAF’s eye in the sky, supporting search and rescue and troops in Afghanistan and operating covertly to protect Britain’s nuclear deterrent.

In 2010, however, the long overdue successor project the Nimrod MRA4 was unceremoniously scrapped at the last minute by a government frustrated by cost overruns. Since then Britain has relied on her allies for back up.

More... Maritime Reconnaissance: Hunting Subs In The 21st Century

Air Vice Marshal Andrew Roberts, ex Director of Air Forces Plans & Programmes, explains "The problem is if there is an intruder there you may see a periscope, and you've got to get there quickly of course. By the time you or your allies have got out there you've probably lost about 24 hours"

As an island nation the importance of maritime protection is paramount, the absence of MPA has left Britain vulnerable both in terms of protecting her own submarine fleet from detection and defending against incursions from a resurgent Russia.

Air Vice Marshal Roberts also noted Russia's increased activity around the UK: 

"They’ve doubled their activity in the last year or so and they are now putting more subs round not only our areas but into the med 6 kilo class subs, fitted for cruise missiles to be fired from them round the med, so that adds to their capability."

The Boeing P-8 Poseidon, already in use with the Americans, is rumoured to be the new aircraft for the job.

Closely resembling a modern jetliner, it has a minimum range of 5,000 nautical miles and can spend up to five hours on task. It’s also available off the shelf and a number of RAF personnel have been embedded and trained on the airframe so it could be brought into service relatively quickly.

Air Vice Marshall Roberts believes the Poseidon is the logical choice: 

"I think it’s effectively the only candidate apart from the Kawasaki the others do not have enough range and endurance on task"

Costing over £100 million each, and with Britain likely to need at least nine of them, analysts estimate the total bill for the the P-8 to be around £2 billion. Roberts believes maritime patrol capability to be "absolutely essential for security of the nuclear deterrent and for our future aircraft carriers, particularly as so few naval escorts are available."

After five years without maritime protection aircraft there is hope the defence review will see the return of the eye in the sky.