Aircraft
PAL’s Global 6500-based Maritime Patroller Emerges
While Saab has ceased marketing its Swordfish MPA, a similar aircraft is now being pitched by PAL as competition to Boeing’s P-8 Poseidon.
PAL P-6 maritime patrol aircraft.
This P-6 model was displayed a the IDEX show with underwing weaponry. An option is an underbelly "flex bay" that can carry various weapons and air-droppable rescue kits. (Photo: Jon Lake)

PAL Aircraft Services’ P-6 maritime patrol aircraft was a surprise debutante at the IDEX show held last week in Abu Dhabi. The new type, based on a Bombardier Global 6500 business jet, bears some similarities to the abandoned Saab Swordfish concept. 

Since the end of the Swordfish program, Boeing has drawn ever closer to the end of P-8A Poseidon production, with the P-8A line expected to close within three years without further orders, assuming a minimum viable production rate of 12 aircraft per year. “Now is the time for a market filler,” Mahmoud El-Awini, PAL’s vice president of business development, told AIN, describing a looming “jet gap”.