{"id":568531,"date":"2025-11-13T22:27:40","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T22:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/568531\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T22:27:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T22:27:40","slug":"germany-and-spain-two-very-different-aerial-options-for-guarding-their-coasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/568531\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany and Spain, two very different aerial options for guarding their coasts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The German Navy received its first P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft<\/p>\n

In recent days we have learned some new developments regarding maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) and maritime surveillance aircraft (MSA) from NATO countries.<\/p>\n

Spanish Air Force will receive 16 C295W MPA\/MSA: this is how these aircraft are for maritime missions<\/a>
The interior of the P-3 Orion ‘Cisne 31’, a Spanish plane that tracked Soviet submarines<\/a><\/p>\n

MPAs have two main roles: anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and anti-surface warfare (ASuW)<\/strong>, and can also carry out search and rescue missions. MSAs, in turn, are aircraft designed for border and coastal control<\/strong>, combating illegal fishing, and search and rescue.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week, the German Navy received its first Boeing P-8A Poseidon MPA<\/strong>. Germany acquired eight of these aircraft to equip the Marineflieger (Naval Air Arm), which will be assigned to Marinefliegergeschwader 3<\/strong> (Naval Aviation Wing 3) based in Nordholz, on the German Atlantic coast.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The P-8A will replace the German Navy’s P-3C CUP+ Orion aircraft.<\/strong> Of the eight that were once operational, only two remain in service. The remaining six were sold in 2023 to the Portuguese Air Force<\/strong>, where they were assigned to Squadron 601 “Lobos”.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The P-8A improves upon some of the P-3C’s capabilities, but not others.<\/strong> The Orions used by Germany had a top speed of 761 km\/h, a ferry range (without weapons) of 8,950 km, and a combat range (with weapons) of 2,491 km. It has 10 hardpoints with a capacity of up to 9,100 kg, capable of carrying anti-ship missiles, bombs, sea mines, torpedoes, and depth charges.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The P-8A has a maximum speed of 907 km\/h, a ferry range of 8,300 km, and a combat range of 2,225 km. It also has 11 hardpoints for weapons<\/strong> (5 in the internal bay, 4 under the wings, and 2 under the fuselage) for carrying anti-ship missiles, cruise missiles, air-to-surface missiles, torpedoes, naval mines, and depth charges. It can carry up to 9 tons of armament.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The P-3 Orion was an exceptional aircraft, and today the P-8A is the only model on the market that comes close.<\/strong> In this respect, Germany has made a good choice in seeking a replacement for its P-3Cs.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

On the other hand, two years ago Spain announced the purchase of 16 C-295W aircraft for maritime missions: 6 MPA and 10 MSA<\/a>, although it was finally confirmed that there will be 8 MPA and 8 MSA<\/a>. The C-295W MPAs will fill the gap left by the Air Force’s seven P-3 Orions:<\/strong> the last of these was decommissioned on December 16, 2022. Thus, Spain has been without maritime patrol aircraft for almost three years.<\/strong> In turn, the eight MSAs will replace the eight CN-235 VIGMAs currently operated by the Air Force.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, November 11, Airbus Defence announced the first flight of the first of the Spanish C-295W MSA aircraft<\/a>. These aircraft will improve upon the performance of their predecessors. The CN-235 VIGMA has a maximum speed of 450 km\/h, a ferry range of 5,000 km, and a payload range of 2,870 km. The C-295W has a maximum speed of 482 km\/h, a ferry range of 5,750 km, and a maximum payload range of 3,704 km<\/strong>. In the case of the C-295W MSA, Airbus states that its maximum range is 4,352 km.<\/a> It is a good aircraft with high sales.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

On the contrary, the C-295W MPA has considerably lower performance than the P-3 Orion<\/strong>. Two years ago, I already warned<\/a> that with this acquisition the Air Force loses performance and capabilities. Its maximum speed of 482 km\/h is well below the P-3’s 761 km\/h. Its ferry range of 5,750 km is 3,200 km less than the ferry range of the P-3.<\/strong> Its full load capacity of 3,705 kg does exceed the P-3’s 2,491 kg, but at the cost of sacrificing combat capability, since the C-295W MPA only has 6 weapon hardpoints (all external)<\/strong> to carry torpedoes, air-to-surface missiles, bombs, depth charges and ECM gondolas, with a maximum capacity of 3,200 kg, well below the P-3’s 9,100 kg<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ll conclude with two facts: Germany will cover 2,389 km of coastline with 8 P-8As, and Spain will cover 7,905 km of coastline with 8 C-295W MPA aircraft, which have a much shorter range than the P-8A.<\/strong> Obviously, Spain chose the C-295W MPA because it is manufactured in Seville and because it is much cheaper than the P-8A, both in terms of unit cost and operating costs. However, it is difficult to understand how Spain will be able to meet its maritime patrol needs with only 8 aircraft<\/strong>, given their limited range compared to a P-3 or a P-8A.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Photos: Deutsche Marine \/ Boeing \/ Airbus Defence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The German Navy received its first P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft In recent days we have learned some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-568531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115544749879285006","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}