The US Navy’s mysterious Bureau of Naval Personnel Sea Duty Component (BUPERS-SDC) and Naval Air Systems Command-Flight Support Detachment (NAWC-23) at Dallas Love Field, Texas, has replaced its final Lockheed P-3C BMUP+ Orion with the Boeing P-8A Poseidon.
The P-3C BMUP+ Orion’s replacement, P-8A (BuNo 170014, c/n 66994/9180), was seen conducting circuit training at Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, Texas, on January 26, 2023. Fitted with the distinctive AN/APS-154 Advanced Airborne Sensor (AAS) multifunction radar under its fuselage, this P-8A replaces the last P-3C BMUP+ Orion (BuNo 161589) at Dallas Love Field. The Orion arrived at Davis Monthan Air Force Base (AFB) in Arizona for storage with the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) on January 23, 2023.
Manufactured by Raytheon as a follow-on system to the AN/APS-149 Littoral Surveillance Radar System (LSRS) used on the P-3C BMUP+, the AN/APS-154 AAS is an externally mounted active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar that features next-generation line-of-sight capabilities.
The double-sided AESA radar also contains a moving target indicator (MTI) – which can simultaneously detect, classify and track targets on land and sea – along with a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) for mapping both inland and ocean areas at the same time while generating picture-like radar imagery. When used in operations, the AAS-equipped P-8A can detect and classify a hostile vessel, before transmitting targeting information to combat aircraft and guide a networked weapon to the target via a datalink.
