Pakistan Navy has secured two more airframes of the Embraer Lineage 1000 aircraft for the Sea Sultan program. The airframes are A6-HHS (built 2010), and the other is unknown. The aircraft were owned by Falcon Aviation Services, Abu Dhabi. The aircrafts were flown after purchase to Johannesburg, South Africa and then from there to Wonderboom Airport in Pretoria. Here the modification work is being done by Paramount Group of South Africa using subsystems from Leonardo of Italy at a cost of $100 million per aircraft.
After wide-ranging and extensive modifications, the Lineage 1000s will become the Pakistan Navy ‘Sea Sultan’ jet-powered LR-MPA. Sea Sultan is designed specifically for high endurance and long-range missions focusing on Anti-Submarine (ASW), Anti Surface Warfare (ASuW) as well as Intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR), ELINT/SIGINT, ESM, command and control, maritime patrol, and Airborne Early Warning (AEW). The system will feature a state-of-the-art sensor suite to enhance situational awareness. It is likely the aircraft will feature an AESA surface search radar, an internal bomb bay to carry torpedoes, sonobuoys, depth charges, anti-surface cruise missiles, and an advanced defensive suite.
Pakistan already has one Embraer Lineage 1000 already in Karachi. This airframe is being used for training of pilots. The two newly procured ones will undergo modifications in South Africa. After modifications are completed, they will be flown to Karachi and will be inducted into the Pakistan Navy, while the one aircraft already here will then be flown to South Africa for its modifications, along with other units the Pakistan Navy will have bought by then.
Read more about Pakistan Navy’s Sultan Project.
Pakistan Navy selects Embraer Lineage 1000E as new MPA: The Sea Sultan: https://pakstrategic.com/2020/10/27/pakistan-navy-selects-embraer-lineage-1000e-as-new-mpa-the-sea-sultan/
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