Canada and Poland join six other NATO members for future joint MPA
On 15 February, Canada and Poland joined the multinational effort on “Cooperation on Multinational Maritime Multi Mission Aircraft Capabilities.”
This cooperation was initiated at a ceremony in Brussels in June 2017, where Defence Ministers from France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and Turkey signed a Letter of Intent for a cooperation that would lead to the joint acquisition or development of new aircraft to replace ageing maritime anti-submarine and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft. At the signing ceremony in Brussels on 15 February, the six initial members welcomed Canada and Poland in the joined multilateral effort.
“This joint effort recognises the fact that the majority of Allies’ maritime patrol aircraft fleets will be reaching the end of their operational lives between 2025 and 2035,“ said NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller during the signing ceremony. She further encouraged the participants to, “push on to the implementation phase. The goal here isn’t just a drawing board design – we need a new generation of aircraft, in the air, fulfilling what is an increasingly important mission.”
The Allies are currently defining a common requirements document for future capabilities in this area, which is scheduled for completion in 2018 and which should provide the foundation for developing and fielding follow-on solutions.
