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U.S. Navy Gains Experience As Fielding of P-8A Poseidon Expands

by Bill Carey

 - July 5, 2016, 3:00 AM

American Airlines has a major maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Oklahoma, and Boeing is about to boost its customer support presence in the state with the opening of a new facility.

U.S. Navy crewmembers have given Boeing’s P-8A Poseidon positive reviews as the 737-derivative maritime patrol aircraft starts to enter service more widely in the U.S., as well as internationally. The first P-8A delivery (of up to 15) to the Royal Australian Air Force is scheduled for November, when the country will join India on the growing list of international operators. The UK also plans to acquire nine examples of the type.

Ultimately, the U.S. Navy plans to acquire 117 jets. So far, six East Coast patrol squadrons have completed the transition from the venerable Lockheed P-3C Orion to the Poseidon after training by Patrol Squadron Thirty (VP-30), the Navy’s fleet replacement training unit at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida. VP-16, known as the “War Eagles,” achieved safe-for-flight status to fly the P-8A in January 2013 and became the first operational squadron that December when it deployed with six Poseidons to Kadena Air Base, Japan, in support of the 7th Fleet.

The focus now shifts from the East Coast base to NAS Whidbey Island, located in Puget Sound off Washington state. VP-30 will oversee transition training there of six West Coast squadrons, beginning in October with VP-4, the “Skinny Dragons,” the first of three Hawaii-based squadrons to relocate temporarily to Whidbey Island for transition to the P-8A.

Last month, Boeing (Chalet B6, OE G4) hosted media representatives at NAS Jacksonville, home to the original P-8A integrated training center. The “ITC” is a 165,000-square-foot facility that contains 30 classrooms, 10 CAE-built Level D full-motion simulators—called operational flight trainers—and seven weapon systems trainers.

The Navy’s third largest base, NAS Jacksonville also hosts a P-8 maintenance training facility with seven virtual maintenance trainers and command-and-control and training buildings for the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft, which will eventually join the Poseidon on maritime patrols. These will be operated by Unmanned Patrol Squadron 19 (VUP-19), which was established in October 2013.

At the time of the media visit, there were about a dozen British RAF personnel training on the P-8A under theUK’s maritime surveillance skills-retention program, “Project Seedcorn,” and 38 Australians, the Navy said.

Navy personnel were enthusiastic when describing the P-8A, a Boeing 737-800 military derivative with reinforced 737-900 wings that costs an estimated $180 million per copy. “Antisubmarine warfare is our bread-and-butter and our primary focus in training,” said Lt. Cmdr. Eric Andrews, a VP-30 training commander and former P-3 instructor pilot. “We can go a lot farther a lot faster and stay on station a lot longer than we can with the P-3.”

The P-8A operates from a ceiling of 41,000 feet down to 200 feet above the water’s surface. Leading a tour of the aircraft’s flight deck, Lt. John Falzetta, a 29-year-old instructor pilot, attested: “This aircraft performs equally well as the P-3 at low level.”

A standard nine-person Poseidon crew consists of three pilots, five mission system operators and one crewmember assigned to load sonobuoys. In the cabin, five mission crew stations with top and bottom screens line the port side of the fuselage; these are manned by electronic warfare and acoustic specialists.

Lt. Nikee Giampietro, a tactical coordinator or “TACCO” with VP-30, said the P-8 mission consoles provide moving map displays with own-ship position, whereas the P-3C display is a black screen that does not indicate the aircraft’s relative position.

With storage capacity for 129 sonobuoys—50 percent more than the P-3 can carry—and with three rotary- and one single-shot launcher in its aft section, the Poseidon offers more mission flexibility, Giampietro said. The performance of the pneumatic launchers has been good, although not without some bugs, she reported. “It really helps our training evolution when you’ve flown the plane—to be able to teach things,” she added.

There were, however, a few criticisms of the new aircraft. With a stated range of 1,200 nautical miles and four hours on station, the P-8A can be refueled in flight, but without that capability the four-engine P-3C turboprop can stay in the air longer, at 13 to 14 hours. And “the visibility in the flight station” is better on the Orion, Andrews observed. “A couple more windows, especially aft of the wing, would have been nice,” added Cmdr. Andrew Miller, who leads the P-8A fleet-integration team.

Boeing was on contract to supply 80 P-8As to the U.S. Navy, and during the media tour it announced the delivery of the 40th Poseidon. The manufacturer has delivered another eight P-8Is to the Indian Navy.

In January, Boeing was awarded a $2.5 billion contract modification from the Naval Air Systems Command to supply 20 Lot 3 full-rate production P-8s, including four for Australia.