Poseidon visits, Triton revealed

Following the exercise, one of the aircraft conducted a flying tour to RAAF Base Edinburgh, home to the AP-3C Orion fleet, and then Canberra and Amberley, for inspection by RAAF personnel.

Although the platform has been based on the 737 airframe, the platform has otherwise been developed from the ground up as the P-8A, said director-general of capability and planning AIRCDRE Warren McDonald in Canberra during the P-8’s visit.

AIRCDRE McDonald said the RAAF had been involved in the spiral development program, with “generous access” from their USN counterparts, and consequently there was little risk of being stuck with a legacy system.

As yet, he said, the only Australian-specific requirement not included in the baseline P-8 was an air-sea rescue package, something the RAAF was “looking to develop into the future”. Until then, the air-sea rescue capability would be delivered by the C-130 fleet.

Boeing manager for P-8 international programs Robert Schoeffling said the P-8 benefits from efficiencies from the commercial 737 production line to produce an on-schedule, on-cost aircraft that was currently meeting all of the USN requirements as laid out at its 2004 inception.

USN pilot LT Matt Letcher from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 said while the platform performs very similarly to the Orion, it brought 21st century avionics into the ASW and AsuW roles, with elements such as moving maps, TCAS, and a “dramatic improvement to safety of flying” and situational awareness.

The P-8 includes all-digital displays and GPS control for sonar buoy deployment. The platform carries five torpedoes, 126 sonar buoys, ESM, and an infrared and electro-optical camera. LT Letcher said the P-8A would undergo Harpoon missile testing in the next year.

The Australian acquisition of the P-8 (AIR 7000 Phase 2B) was delayed by one year under the recent 2012-13 federal budget. AIRCDRE McDonald said the RAAF would maintain a close eye on the planned withdrawal date for the Orion fleet, as well as progressing the training of staff to ensure a smooth transition to the P-8 when it is introduced.

Meanwhile, the P-8’s likely partner in RAAF service, the MQ-4C BAMS variant of the Global Hawk UAV has been rolled out. Northrop Grumman publicly unveiled the first MQ-4C, the version of the RQ-4 Global Hawk developed for the US Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program in mid-June, with the US Navy announcing the UAV has been named Triton.

The first MQ-4C was revealed at a ceremony at Palmdale, California on June 14, just days after an RQ-4A Block 10 Global Hawk being used for the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance-Demonstration (BAMS-D) program crashed in Maryland on June 11.

The Triton name is in keeping with the US Navy’s tradition of naming maritime surveillance aircraft after Greek sea gods, with Triton the Greek messenger of the sea.

The MQ-4C is seen as a strong contender for the ADF’s AIR 7000 Phase 1B Multi-mission Unmanned Aerial System requirement to complement in the P-8 Poseidon replacing the RAAF’s AP-3C Orions.