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The Sea Sultan long-range maritime patrol aircraft (LRMPA) is an important project for the Pakistan Navy (PN), not only as a successor to the Lockheed Martin P-3B/C Orion, its current mainstay anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and anti-ship warfare (AShW) aircraft, but as a key solutions enabler.
How so?
Well, at every level, the Sea Sultan LRMPA leverages commercially off-the-shelf (or COTS) technology to (1) control cost, (2) ensure upgradability, and – perhaps most importantly – (3) guarantee future procurement availability.
In this process, Pakistan is not manufacturing any of the critical inputs or aircraft, so the Sea Sultan is not an ‘indigenous’ program per se. However, by both finding and integrating preexisting platforms and subsystems, the PN is learning the process of developing an original solution that it could manage and evolve with far greater autonomy compared to buying a stock solution from a vendor.
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Moreover, the PN is sourcing the base platform from the second-hand airliner market, which is not as restricted as directly buying a controlled military design from an OEM. It is also cheaper from a cost standpoint.
That said, Embraer announced that it was designing a variant of the E190-E2 for special mission applications, including maritime patrol. This may suggest that the OEM is offering the market with a modification-ready variant of the E190-E2 (i.e., without the airliner inputs) so that customers can begin configuring it right away instead of spending resources on stripping out passenger seats. In addition, it is possible that this special mission variant could include the additional internal fuel tanks for extended-range/endurance capabilities.
In other words, the PN could also have the longer-term option of also leveraging new-built aircraft if it chooses (but this is not necessary as the second-hand E190 and E190-E2 markets would have sufficient units available).
Overall, the benefit of leveraging a widely available airliner is that the PN can grow its fleet or replenish its fleet with new units at will. For example, with the P-3C, the PN had to consult the U.S. for replacement units, be it from the U.S. itself or a third-party user with mothballed aircraft.
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