Boeing plans to fly its 737-800-based Multimission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) as early as mid-2006 if it is selected this year by the US Navy.
It is also discussing accelerating the programme, following the recent discovery of worse-than-expected fatigue problems in the service's fleet of Lockheed Martin P-3 Orions.
The US Navy has said it expects to award a contract for the $3 billion system development and demonstration (SDD) phase of the MMA project by 9 June, but Boeing believes that the winner could be known by late April.
Competing
The Boeing-led team, which includes Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Smiths Aerospace, is competing with a radically-revamped version of the P-3, the Orion 21.
The winner will build five SDD airframes, with the SDD phase running from 2004-12, low-rate initial production by 2008 and initial operating capability planned for 2013.
A total of 150 MMAs would be delivered to the USN, supplementing and eventually replacing the current fleet of 246 P-3s.
Source: Flight Daily News