Canada, Poland join multinational effort for next-gen MPA development.

Canada and Poland agreed to join a multinational effort for developing follow-on solutions for aging maritime anti-submarine and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, the NATO press office said on February 15, 2018.

Saab's Swordfish MPA
(Credit: Saab)

At a signing ceremony at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Defence Ministers from France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and Turkey welcomed Canada and Poland to the multinational effort on “Cooperation on Multinational Maritime Multi Mission Aircraft Capabilities.”

“This joint effort recognises the fact that the majority of Allies’ maritime patrol aircraft fleets will be reaching the end of their operational lives between 2025 and 2035“ said NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller during the signing ceremony. She further encouraged the participants to “push on to the implementation phase. The goal here isn’t just a drawing board design – we need a new generation of aircraft, in the air, fulfilling what is an increasingly important mission”.

The initiative offers participants the opportunity to adopt common solutions in this critical capability area.

This will deliver better value for money, as well as operational benefits. Since 2017, the six Allies have started to define a common requirements document for future capabilities in this area, which should be completed in 2018. This work will provide a foundation for developing and fielding follow-on solutions.