Atlantique MPA

EADS’ maritime patrol offerings include EADS-CASA’s CN-235MP Persuader in service with a number of countries, and the twin-turboprop AT3 Atlantique offered as part of the SECBAT consortium (EADS, Dassault Aviation of France, Alenia of Italy, and SABCA-SONACA of Belgium). While these are capable aircraft, their range and payload limitations may make them a dubious contender to replace the TU-142.

Further up the range scale, maritime variants of their ATR 42 and ATR 72 short-haul passenger turboprops are produced for some customers, and EADS also refurbishes and maintains Spanish P-3C Orion aircraft.

In the end, however, their primary offering was “none of the above.” A July 2007 Defense News report suggests that rather than using any of the proven designs above, EADS is leveraging equipment from these efforts to propose a maritime patrol variant of the Airbus A319 passenger jet for this competition. The design is not expected to become operational before 2014, however, which means that EADS’ shorter-range options may become relevant again if India’s Navy seeks an interim buy as part of a package deal, or wants to complement its forces with medium range aircraft.

Airbus and Boeing have both made substantial investments in India, and both are seriously examining the possibility of partnering with Indian companies to jointly develop communications, data-link and identification friend-or-foe (IFF) equipment as part of their bids.