Navy picks Boeing to provide anti-submarine warfare (ASW) flying torpedoes for maritime patrol aircraft

Questions and answers:

• What does the HAAWC Air Launch Accessory (ALA) enable the MK 54 torpedo to do? It enables the MK 54 torpedo to launch from altitudes as high as 30,000 feet and glide toward an enemy submarine before the torpedo enters the water.
• Why does the P-8A Poseidon aircraft launch torpedoes from high altitudes? So the aircraft can maintain efficient patrol altitudes, reduce attack response times, and strike submerged enemy submarines from outside enemy air defenses.
• What key enabling technologies are part of the HAAWC ALA system? Technologies include wings from the SLAM-ER missile, a JDAM-based GPS guidance kit, a flight-control computer, and a data link for in-flight target updates.

WASHINGTON – Airborne weapons experts at the Boeing Co. are building launch equipment for flying torpedoes that can enable U.S. Navy aircraft to attack submerged enemy submarines from long ranges at high altitudes.

Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington announced a $61.2 million order to the Boeing Co. Defense, Space & Security segment in St. Louis earlier this month for High Altitude Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Weapon Capability (HAAWC) Air Launch Accessory (ALA) equipment, production and hardware support, and related engineering.

The HAAWC ALA enables the Raytheon MK 54 lightweight torpedo carried aboard the Navy Boeing P-8A Poseidon long-range maritime patrol jet to glide through the air from altitudes as high as 30,000 feet -- essentially transforming the torpedo into a glide weapon that can attack enemy submerged submarines from long ranges.

After shedding its control surfaces, the HAAWC ALA activates a parachute that lowers the torpedo into the water to begin its run toward the target. When launched from 30,000 feet the HAAWC-equipped MK 54 torpedo will glide for seven to 10 minutes before entering the water.

Torpedo glide weapons

While in flight the HAAWC glide weapons are completely self-contained. The ALA includes a flight-control computer, a GPS-based navigation system, and power sources.

The MK 54 always has been launchable from aircraft, but before the HAAWC ALA, crews of anti-submarine fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters had to release the torpedo from altitudes no higher than about 100 feet.

The HAAWC will enable the P-8A aircraft -- a modified Boeing 737-800ERX passenger jetliner -- to maintain optimum surveillance altitudes without wasting time and fuel to drop to low altitudes and then back to high patrol altitudes.

Attacking from high altitudes also enables the P-8A to reduce the time between target acquisition and attack, as well as to launch anti-submarine weapons outside the ranges of shore-based anti-aircraft defenses.

Tell me more about the P-8A aircraft's role in anti-submarine warfare (ASW).

• The P-8A Poseidon's ASW mission focuses on detecting, tracking, and neutralizing enemy submarines using sonobuoy deployment and data processing; its magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) sensor; torpedo launch capability; radar and infrared sensors; and tactical networking with other naval aircraft and surface warships.

The Mk 54 is an all-digital lightweight torpedo that has advanced software algorithms developed originally for the larger submarine-launched Mark 48 torpedo.

The Boeing HAAWC ALA for the MK 54 torpedo consists of wings designed originally for the Boeing AGM-84H/K Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER). The ALA tail assembly includes the guidance kit designed originally for the Joint Direct-Attack Munition (JDAM), which contains a GPS navigation system. Boeing also is fitting the HAAWC with a data link to transmit target position updates while in flight.

On this order Boeing will do the work on this contract in St. Charles, Joplin, St. Louis, and Piedmont, Mo.; Salt Lake City; Minneapolis; and Chandler, Ariz., and should be finished by January 2028.

For more information contact Boeing Defense, Space & Security online at www.boeing.com/company/about-bds, or Naval Sea Systems Command at www.navsea.navy.mil.