Summary
Airborne Surveillance
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Extract
The watch over water.
During the Cold War the development of the principal maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) was driven by the need to find and attack nuclear-powered submarines deep in the middle of the ocean. On a global scale, anti-submarine warfare (ASW) is now less dominant, although diesel-electric submarines are proliferating. The maritime patrol aircraft is typically tasked with a broad range of blue water and littoral missions, including anti-surface vessel warfare (ASuW), fisheries-protection, search-and-rescue, and anti-pollution patrols.
Any survey of recent developments in the maritime patrol aircraft field is complicated by the ease with which a useful over-water surveillance system can be produced by equipping any small commercial twin-turboprop aircraft with a lightweight radar, an electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) turret and appropriate monitors. There are many such aircraft grossing between five and 25 tonnes, and the maritime patrol aircraft range is growing steadily as littoral nations attempt to monito...See the full content of this document
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