PAKISTAN: Embraer Lineage 1000 as new MPA

Of the eight Lockheed P-3C Orion aircraft that the USA handed over to the Pakistani navy free of charge 15 years ago and subsequently modernised, six at best should still be airworthy today after two aircraft were lost in a terrorist attack on the Mehran airfield in Karachi in 2011. According to Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, Commander of the Navy, these MPAs are to be replaced by ten in the future Embraer Lineage 1000commercial aircraft from the Brazilian manufacturer that are yet to be converted. A first model has been ordered and is to bear the type designation "Sultan of the Sea" with military equipment. Embraer has not yet commented on the location and scope of the conversion. The most difficult item on the conversion list is likely to be the weapons bay in the belly of the aircraft. Apart from the promising name, the company is extremely confident - after all, the American Poseidon, the twin-engine successor to the Orion, is also just a converted Boeing 737-800.