Boeing rolls out first RAAF P-8A Poseidon

When will they be fully operational…..will they be heading up to the China sea anytime soon.

a bit sad that the orions will be leaving though.

If the wooden boat us large enough, you may still be able to detect it with the muli-purpose radar.

A great aircraft replacing a great aircraft.

They can carry weapos for one Henry.

The RAAF has invested in most of the equipment required to take on the battle field and stay ahead of the ball . . . except for comint and sigint. Maybe its time for the Australians to think about the concept of expanding the organic mission areas of the RAAF. I think the Australians are going to not only want to host RC-135 deployments, but acquire their own, and have riders on the RC flights to develop the expertise. The E-7A Wedgetail is already providing many JSTARS like mission performance with the MESA radar.. It is a natural and logical progression for the RAAF to acquire Special Mission aircraft using the 737 airframe. Perhaps some Advanced Airborne Sensor packages for the P-8As..

Paul,do u work at the airshow?

Just fyi the AP-3Cs can also carry torpedoes, depth charges, Harpoon anti-ship missiles as well as drop and monitor sonobuoys.

Obviously the P=8 is a bigger aircraft and can also carry cruise missiles and bombs… but it also has to fly higher and faster than a AP-3C and thus doesn’t have the same sort of persistence, especially below cloud cover… but that what the Tritons are for I guess.

think, the P-8 has a greater speed , weapons load and range than the nimrod and orion

Curtis, already happening:

https://australianaviation.com.au/2016/01/special-missions-gulfstream-550s-for-the-raaf/
https://australianaviation.com.au/2016/01/defence-confirms-acquisition-of-two-isr-and-ew-gulfstreams/

and you can bet the P-8’s will also acquire additional functionality down the track.

@ Paul yes

It’s silly to purchase another airframe for sigint/elint when you look at the specs of both the E-7A and the P-8, both have been designed as a multi mission platform that can perform sigint/elint.

Currently Boeing is offering the US airforce a 737 airframe for sigint/elint/jstar, i think from an operational/maintenance/training/parts point of view we should look at the 737 instead of the G550. You would think that someone in the government and in the current climate would think, common airframes, thats the way to save money…..

So we are using the aircraft Boeing says is best and the one that is less well equipped (G550)

Hayden,

Best and also less well equipped? Ultimately the RAAF will be far better equipped.

Just go back a little in time and see what the RAAF had and where it was heading to.

Reportedly 18 of the 19 surviving P-3C’s were upgraded to AP-3C standard, it was also reported that a couple of them were upgraded with a SIGINT/ELINT capability and other reports suggested that a number of ‘kits’ were obtained that allowed for that capability to be moved around amongst the airframes.

A couple of years back the plan was to replace the 18 (19th reportedly not upgraded) with 8 P-8A’s and also obtain 7 MQ-4C Triton, and no mention of a dedicated SIGINT/ELINT capability replacement.

This then became 8 P-8A + 4 options, (plus 7 Triton), that has now been changed to a definite 12 P-8A, plus 7 Triton, and still the possibility/probability of the P-8A fleet growing to 15 airframes, and again, plus 7 Triton.

Added to all of the above is the plan to obtain 2 (and potentially up to 5), G550’s with a dedicated SIGINT/ELINT capability as well, and as a matter of interest, the G550’s have a range of approx. 12,500km, pretty impressive!

By around the mid 2020’s we could possibly see 15 P-8A’s, 7 MQ-4C Triton and up to 5 G550’s in a dedicated SIGINT/ELINT role in service with the RAAF.

The old saying ‘horses for courses’ and it looks like we are getting three pretty good horses.

Trifecta anyone??

Cheers,

John N

it will be interesting to see what the elint/sigint G550 will look like?

does anyone have any idea on what colour scheme the g550 will wear

We will be looking at a new VIP fleet sooner rather than later and with the ex Qantas A330s being converted to KC-30s with a VIP interior, probably replacing the 737s, the G-550 with global range will look very attractive to replace the CL-604s

On topic the RNZAF should follow suit to replace its 6 ageing P3 Orions with 4 P8 Poseidons & 2 Triton drones, which should cover requirements & interoperability with the RAAF

I think the RNZAF will be getting P8’s fairly soon….

I was reading up on it… they are going to retire the P3Ks in 2025 at the earliest (but there are no official reports on preferences for the P-8 or if indeed 2025 is set in stone, because its fairly vague in the DWP16 and most likely will be extended further). And just a few months ago, covered on this very site, Boeing announced that it won the tender to upgrade NZ’s P3Ks with advanced anti-submarine search and tracking systems similar to those in the P-8s.

Thus, this won’t happen anytime soon and there has been no statements about NZ getting the P-8s (not even in their defence white paper) beyond Boeing mentioning that it saw NZ as a potential customer back in 2011. The fact that Boeing i upgrading NZ’s P3Ks means that NZ obviously passed on the opportunity to replace its capability with the P-8s for the foreseeable future. But it would be great if they did go for it!

Hopefully Avalon 2017 will have new two RAAF aircraft types on display for the first time, the C-27J Spartan and the P-8 Poseidon.

Just imagine….. AND NOW, THE RUSSIAN AIR FORCE WITH THEIR SU-30s !!!!!