The US Department of Defense has awarded Boeing a $61.2 million contract for additional High Altitude Anti-Submarine Warfare Weapon Capability (HAAWC) systems to enhance the long-range strike capabilities of the Navy’s P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft.
Announced on 2 July, the fully funded contract modification forms part of a broader multi-year procurement agreement and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2027. All equipment will be delivered exclusively to US naval aviation forces.
HAAWC allows the P-8A to launch Mk 54 anti-submarine torpedoes from high altitude, eliminating the need for low-level deployment manoeuvres that increase airframe stress and fuel consumption.
By enabling stand-off launches from cruising altitude, the system extends the aircraft’s reach while reducing wear and risk.
At the core of the system is the Air Launch Accessory (ALA), a modular wing kit that attaches to the Mk 54 torpedo, providing GPS-aided flight guidance. Once released, the torpedo glides toward a target before entering the water and transitioning to normal homing mode.
According to the contract announcement, Boeing will supply not only the air launch equipment but also materials, hardware, and engineering services to support production. The system is designed to function in both GPS-enabled and GPS-denied environments, offering the P-8A greater operational flexibility across a wider range of mission scenarios.
The P-8A Poseidon, derived from the Boeing 737 airframe, is a cornerstone of US anti-submarine and maritime surveillance capability.
Enhancing it with HAAWC expands the Navy’s ability to detect and engage submerged threats at greater distances, preserving aircraft survivability while improving mission effectiveness.
All we need to now is buy this for UK P8s.
The UK already operates it. This article is a little confusing as this system has been in service for a while. Its operated by the US, Australia, UK and Norway. This article seems to be about a new contract for more of them.
And this was an integral part of the P8 as it was always meant to operate from higher altitudes than the P-3 and this was the original plan for high altitude torpedo employment. Its been in service for a few years.
Before GunBuster gets upset 😉 we could/should be looking at modding StringRay for this mode of delivery. It surely can’t be that difficult, after all as far as the torpedo is concerned the only difference is what platform “lets go if it”, a helo or a glider kit.
GB has not been seen here for many a month.
MIA.
Airborne popped up for a while but he’s ‘gone dark’ again.
My friend Airborne? He’s here, was chatting with him over on the York article, He lurks, and he’s earned it!
Haven’t heard from Airborne, trust his well?
Haven’t heard much from Airborne, trust he is well?
He’s still on Twitter so he’s OK, I think.
Apparently he’s back in the UK for the first time in ages, seem to recall he’d retired?
Ah, ok. Good, The ultimate SMA if ever there was one.
Before your time mate, I recall a brilliant convo between some random Troll and me, which GB took over with.
The Troll was making grand statements regards ASM and Exocet, saying posters, inc me, knew nothing.
GB then took over and he told him he knew nothing either! Posters warned him that he’s picking on the wrong guy.
I just enjoyed him hanging himself.
SME
Was he an SME? I don’t recall his expertise being limited to a single subject matter 😉
The best conversation I had with him was on NL. We were all getting very excited about the newly announced Ancilia decoy launcher and I dared to suggest that it might be able to launch missiles as well, and how cool that would be.
I was very slowly talked through all of the possible reasons why it would be a stupid idea.
But I still think it would be cool!
@SB, T, now TJ.
Mate, that is barking……typical SB mad prof material.
Well, it just so happens that the back end of the standard NATO 130mm decoy is nearly exactly the same size and shape as the StarStreak and Martlet launch tubes. And some of the decoys are rockets anyway, so the back end is open…
My idea was that if you put a guidance turret on the static part of the launcher, between the two canister ‘arms’, that you would have a universal ship defence system capable of hard and soft kill defence, but apparently the places they are putting them would have backblast issues and the weight of the missiles might impact the elevating speeds of the launcher.
Ah! Method to the madness!
You’ll go far, young man. 👍
I am more interested in when P-8 integration is completed with LRASM or JSM.
Made by Boeing?……..that’s not good.
Boeings military stuff is great. It hasn’t been off-shored like their commercial program. JDAMs, Small diameter bombs etc. are boeing. And this article is a little confusing because this system has actually been in service for a few years. This announcement (and article) is for an additional order. But full rate production and in service date was back in 2022 i believe.
The Mk54 is not the best light weight torpedo money can buy.. firing it off at long range may increase surprise and give it a better chance of chasing down its target. But i suspect it still does not bring it close to the far more effective stingray.
people seem to not realize how significantly the american series of torpedoes get upgraded and just how big those upgrades are. the Mk 54 got a massive upgrade just a couple of years ago which completely changed its capabilities, primarily in the littorals. its essentially an entirely new torpedo billed as an ‘upgrade’, they do that sometimes because it makes it easier for congress to approve. sort like like going from the F-18C to the F-18E.
I’m pretty sure the MK54 mod1 got a right old panning from oversight on being a bit Sh&T with the mod 1 increment 2 planned this year to ameliorate some of the issues.
As I understand it Stingray is being integrated into the P8. We learned only a few weeks ago “The work is expected to run from February 2027 through February 2032, with a possible extension to 2035.”
I wonder if Mod 2 integration would be a good programme to accelerate. I might be wrong but I recall Mod 2 is due around 2028, several years before the Mod 1’s integration on P8 will be complete. That’s bizarre, right? It’s not me going barmy here?