![]() ![]() While most analysts didn’t see LRASM’s integration onto the P-8A as necessarily unusual, Bowman noted the US military is considering other unorthodox weapon-platform combinations as a means for confusing adversaries. “Especially as the USN and other militaries move to operational modes where unmanned systems (such as MQ-4C Tritons or MQ-9Bs Sea Guardians) are providing the persistent presence, the P-8 can be a rapid responder when needed, while capable of bringing a diverse set of payloads for operational flexibility, and employ them from longer range,” said Bassler. Those issues have been highlighted by the Pentagon’s chief weapons tester in recent years.Ĭhris Bassler, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said increasing the offensive capabilities on a manned ISR aircraft makes sense given that unmanned vehicles are more frequently being tasked with pure surveillance missions. Both the Navy and the Air Force experienced hardware and software issues during initial LRASM testing onboard their respective aircraft. The Navy stopped purchasing P-8s for the US fleet in fiscal 2021 with a total inventory of 128, according to military budget justification documents.īut what analysts were less certain about was how a big technical lift the integration may be. “We’re coming back into an era of great power competition with China which is essentially maritime in its character,” he said, adding the Pentagon should consider raising the number of planes in its fleet. Hendrix also brought up concerns about capacity, but focused on the Pentagon’s inventory of P-8s, rather than the missiles they use.
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