The US Navys future Multi-Mission Aircraft is expected to serve as a bridge to unmanned Naval Aviation.

In September, NAVAIR (PMA-290) announced that the Boeing Co. (Seal Beach, CA) and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. (Marietta, GA) had each been awarded $7-million contracts for the Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) programs Component Advanced Development (CAD) effort. The contracts cover the first five months of an 18-month industry effort to support MMA CAD. The MMA developed under the program will eventually take over the Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Force (MPRF) capabilities in the areas of anti-submarine warfare (ASW); anti-surface warfare (ASuW); and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) as the P-3C Orion and EP-3E Aries are retired.

The purpose of CAD is to define the program and reduce risk, explained Justin Ward, a spokesman for PMA-290. MMAs CAD program has two stages: one five-months long, one twelve-months long. In the first stage, the contractors will perform requirements analysis in support of the development of the operational requirements document (ORD), define the MMA system architecture, quantify and reduce MMA system risks, evaluate total ownership costs, and develop detailed plans and schedules for each MMA system alternative. In the second stage, industry will have to define and refine even further such factors as mitigating risks. CAD will conclude at Milestone B, which is now slated for January 2004, at which time the system-development-and-demonstration (SDD) phase will commence. Initial operational capability (IOC) for the MMA is targeted for 2012, when the existing P-3C and EP-3E fleets are reaching the end of their service lives.

The deliverable after the first phase is a better definition of what the MMA will be, said Ward. Originally, we expected six to eight concepts. We received two. Originally we were going to downselect to two or three concepts, but since we have only two, we see no real need to downselect. So were working on eliminating that, making for a smooth transition into the second stage of CAD.

When the MMA joins the fleet, it will be adept in dealing with both blue-water and brown-water ASW, ASuW, ISR, and over-the-horizon intel and weapons-delivery support. The Navy has reportedly identified MMA as a program that will receive special support from the outset that focuses on providing a product to the fleet in the shortest amount of time, and the MMA is also a key component of the USNs Transformation Roadmap for Sea Strike, Sea Shield, and Sea Basing. It will both greatly increase existing MPA capabilities and significantly increase the US Navys ability to operate with coalition forces. Part of the development process is to determine whether the MMA will be a manned, stand-alone aircraft, or an aircraft that will both fly a mission and control a number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Toward this end, NAVAIR is theoretically coupling the integration of Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) UAVs with a manned MMA. Perhaps most strikingly, the Navy has identified the MMA as a key in the transformational process of moving tactical Naval Aviation from manned to unmanned platforms down the road.

Hank Davis, director of Boeings Maritime Airborne Systems Group, said that the company has identified a 737 variant as its candidate for the MMA. Our target aircraft is the 737-700 increased-gross-weight aircraft, he said. It can make a 1,500-mile transit each way with four hours on station without breaking a sweat. At altitude at Mach 0.78, it burns the same amount of fuel as a P-3 at Mach 0.5.

Lockheed Martin, meanwhile, is initially thinking more along the lines of an enhanced P-7, a developmental aircraft cancelled in 1991 after the Soviet Union collapsed and the US Congress, took a meat cleaver to replacements for 30- and 40-year-old tactical systems. The P-7 would have been a substantially more capable maritime patrol aircraft when compared to the P-3, which first flew in 1959 and entered service in 1962.

But before any aircraft is selected, Boeing and Lockheed Martin must first go through the CAD phase. CAD I has five deliverables, said Ray Burick, Lockheed Martins MMA program manager. First is the requirements analysis of the interim requirements document. Second is comment on preliminary performance specifications, including ASW, acoustics, radar, electronic-support measures, electronic countermeasures and counter-countermeasures, airframe performance, etc., looking towards making changes for the initial requirements document that will, in turn, be used to develop the ORD. The third deliverable is an operations-security plan. Fourth is the Preferred System Concept Report, in which will be described the vendors offering in technical terms. And fifth is the cost-estimate report, showing how costs are determined against required systems with what the vendor will add to aircrafts capabilities.

Phase I was to have been delivered to PMA-290 on February 7. CAD Phase II is expected to be next, said Ward, although events may allow PMA-290 to eliminate the downselect and carry both concepts through.

During Phase II, the Navy will release proposals for the final downselect, explained Burick. This will initiate a four-year program costing $2.3 billion in which the vendor will take the non-recurring elements and develop an aircraft.

Following prototype development, low-rate, initial production will take place, and IOC - defined as 22 aircraft (one operational and one training squadron) - is scheduled for 2010-2012.