P-8 Poseidon – The Next Step in Maritime Patrol by

Group Captain Roger McCutcheon

An Air Power Seminar given at Canberra on 8 December 2015

Part 1 of 2

The Royal Australian Air Force’s maritime patrol capability has been critical to the security of our maritime trading nation since the darkest days of World War II. Aircraft such as the Catalina, Sunderland, Neptune and the Orion have all served Australia extremely well in both peace and war. Soon we will welcome into the Air Force the next aircraft to perform this role—the P-8A Poseidon. The P-8A is a derivative of the Next Generation Boeing 737-800 and is currently in service with the US Navy. Australia will receive its first P-8A in late 2016 and transition from the AP-3C Orion over the next few years. Group Captain Roger McCutcheon GPCAPT McCutcheon joined the RAAF in 1986 as a direct-entry navigator and following training, was posted to fly P-3C Orion aircraft at RAAF Base Edinburgh, South Australia. In total, he has served three tours at 11SQN, including as Flight Commander and Executive Officer and two tours at 292SQN, including as Commanding Officer. In these tours, he has flown over 4700 hours in the Orion aircraft. He has held various staff positions and an exchange posting with the USAF Air Operations Centre Training Wing in Hurlburt Field, Florida. In 2009, he deployed to the Middle East as the Executive Officer of JTF633 Air Component Headquarters. GPCAPT Roger McCutcheon is currently the Director of the Air Force Maritime Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Response Transition Office, responsible for the introduction into service of the P-8A.

GPCAPT McCutcheon: Ladies and gentlemen, I know there’s a lot of P-3 folks in the room but there’s probably a lot that aren’t, so I think it’s important to set the scene and say, ‘Why do we need a maritime patrol capability? What does it do?’ It is a bit of a tribal culture [in the P-3 world], like many FEGs and wings in the Air Force. So I just want to open it up and I’m going to do that by looking at some of the operations we’ve done over the last ten years, talk about some of the roles and expand on that.

[I’ll] then move into, ‘So where are we at with the P-8 schedule?’ [I’m] going to dive into training and facilities—two areas, in particular, that I think are offering a lot of change and good things for the wing. And then into the P-8 itself—an overview of the aircraft, the sensors, the capabilities and what it can do. And then [I’ll] finish off with a few slides on future development. Where is it going? I’m going to touch a little bit on Triton throughout because the P-8 and the Triton have been developed as a common system and will be increasingly more so in the future. So I’ll talk a little bit about Triton but not a lot, just due to time.

- 1 -

All right. So operations. Now this is looking back ten years. Now obviously MPA [maritime patrol aircraft] operations, as you might have seen from the advertising for this seminar, really go back to World War II. Ten Squadron went over to the UK to pick up the Sunderland in 1939 and stayed for World War II and came back five years later and did some amazing things in the hunt for the U-boats, protecting the Atlantic convoys and working as part of Coastal Command in the RAF.

No 11 Squadron can trace its lineage back to the Catalinas. I think we had two squadrons [of those aircraft] at the start of World War II, designed for peaceful surveillance but they found themselves at the forefront of operations against the Japanese. The Catalina had an amazing range and [flew missions] such as mining Manila Bay from Darwin and returning, picking up Coastwatchers, protecting convoys, searching for Japanese warships, attacking airfields and all sorts of different things. The Black Cats really have a famous history and I’ve got a book here I was going to show, but we can have a look at the end. But just some amazing stories. You can probably tell I have an 11 Squadron background so I’m a bit biased there, but there’s a lot of history there.

OP GATEWAY

OP SOLANIA

OP RESOLUTE

OP SLIPPER

Recent AP-3C Operations

But [over] the last ten years, most people would be aware of Operation SLIPPER in the Middle East. P-3s deployed at the start of ’03, doing maritime surveillance in the Persian Gulf. Moved overland for Operation CATALYST over Iraq, supporting the fight there and were involved in some quite significant battles—the Battle of Fallujah, Baghdad and numerous other troops-in-contact [situations]. [The P-3s were] directly supporting the ground troops, which was a new role for the P-3. They had never done that before, really. Previously, 92 Wing had provided command and control support to some minor land activities but this was a very new role and full on. So there were a lot of rapid changes to the aircraft—putting on full-motion video (FMV) downlink to the troops; updating the electro-optical kit; things like that happened. At the same time, still doing the important maritime ISR [intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance] operations.

- 2 -

About 2009, [they] moved over Afghanistan, again doing overland ISR in support of our forces. But I think probably more was done in support of the coalition forces there, in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, supporting the US Marines and Canadian Army. I flew on a couple of those missions when I was there in the headquarters and they were quite eye-opening, how we were supporting the [road] convoys, looking ahead of the convoys, sending the FMV down to the JTAC [Joint Terminal Attack Controller] on the ground, who was listening, steering the EO [electro-optical] pod around. ‘Stop, go down that road. Stop at that bridge. What are those people doing? Zoom in on that.’ And [looking] a few miles ahead of the convoys and they were going very slowly because of the IED [improvised explosive device] threat. So that was an eye-opener to me. As well as doing direct support for some other missions that were pretty serious going on there.

One point I will make about the P-3—and it’s been a common feature of MPAs—is the ability to be flexible and switch missions. Not necessarily during the same mission but certainly day-by-day, P-3s in the Middle East were doing maritime ISR in the Arabian Sea down here—I’ll use my pointer—down in this area; the next day up in Afghanistan doing overland ISR. Occasionally they were would go up there to do that, the weather was so bad, [they] couldn’t get much use of the EO [electro-optical] pod, [so they’d] switch down to support CTF 150 or 151 [maritime forces] down in this area. So that to me indicated their long range and the ability to rapidly swap mission types and the flexibility to support multiple the task forces.

Counter-piracy down the coast of Somalia was another role that came in at about the same time. So again, the flexibility of the MPA and its reach were evident.

OP GATEWAY

• RMAF Base Butterworth (Malaysia)

• Maritime Security

• South China Sea - area of increasing strategic importance and tension

• Challenging and demanding environment

Let’s go to the next slide. Op GATEWAY has been running for many years—it is predominantly maritime ISR in the South China Sea and Bay of Bengal; very heavy and important shipping lanes go through there and I think everyone would be aware of the tension and the strategic importance of that area, especially the South China Sea. So P-3s are still up there. In fact I think there’s a mission on right now up there. It is a challenging and demanding environment but it is also a great place to fly. I don’t think

- 3 -

there’d be too many maritime folks in the crowd here that haven’t enjoyed their Butterworth time. The flying is very good, challenging, you never know what you’re going to find. It’s all part of building the picture for the commanders.

Operation RESOLUTE, the Border Protection operation, P-3s have been a part of that for many years now and it’s maybe the only operation that defends the Australian homeland so that’s been a very busy operation. It’s quietened down now, from the P-3 perspective, but a few years ago, there were many missions and search and rescues. A lot of the overcrowded boats were all sinking and up to hundreds of people were then in the water. There were search and rescue kits being deployed left, right and centre and some quite big decisions being made by junior aircraft captains out there to help those people. So it was pretty full on. But the Operation RESOLUTE area is also all around Australia—it’s not just the north—it’s all around and missions are conducted there.

Operation SOLANIA is in the South West Pacific, helping out the small island nations in their vast areas of economic responsibility which they have very little way of enforcing. For example, some years ago, illegal tuna boats would come in and take their tuna stocks, which are worth millions of dollars and there’s no way for [the island nations] to police it. Op SOLANIA is a two-week patrol run three to six times a year, going out and supporting the small nations in the Pacific. Very good for regional engagement as well, obviously. But it does do a real job.

Search and Rescue

• Vast area of responsibility – a frequent task for MPA• Recent major SAR: MH-370 in 2014

Search and Rescue [SAR]. Probably one of the ones that you know most about the MPA because of the, the media attention. MH370 in 2014 was a big one. Go back way before that, it was the Bullimore and the Dubois and there’s been numerous large SARs through the years between and also before then. It’s a frequent task that the P-3 force has been called out on many times through the years and you don’t always hear about it. So again, that ability to reach and react quickly at speed and do something about it such as finding survivors, deploying life rafts into the water and vectoring in rescue vessels or helicopters is a role that will continue with the P-8.

- 4 -

And you can see the size of the [Search and Rescue] area that Australia is responsible for. It’s about 11% of the world’s surface so it’s a massive, massive area with the assets we’ve got.

Right, so this is, I think, the last slide I’ve got, looking at ‘why do we need a maritime patrol force’ and I think it’s a great slide because in the middle you’ve got anti-submarine warfare [ASW]. I haven’t talked about that yet but that is one of the lesser-known but critical roles that the MPA force does. Submarines are a fantastic weapon system and I’m sure the Navy guys in the audience would agree. A submarine can do immense damage to a surface force. It’s also a fantastic intelligence-gathering platform vessel. So one way of countering that is with MPA at range deploying sonobuoys and using other sensors. Submarines are probably the best counter-submarine force, but MPA are a big part of it because of their reach.

It does take a lot of assets though to patrol an area. To cover, say, a chokepoint for 24 hours, you’re talking probably six or so aircraft continuously doing that and that’s just one area. It’s also highly likely MPA would directly support/protect the force and protect the amphibious vessels et cetera. [ASW] is a skill that takes a lot of training. It’s not something you can drop and pick up quickly. It takes a lot of training and a generation, really, to build up those types of skills. We saw from the Middle East with the focus on the ISR work, that the ability to find, track and attack submarines suffered quite badly through those years. We kept training up as much as we could through the [use of] simulators and what exercises we had, but it did suffer and only recently is it starting to rebuild to the previous levels.

The other roles there—maritime ISR and anti-surface warfare. That’s where you go out and find an enemy surface force, build a surface picture and, if necessary, attack it with air-to-surface missiles. So again, that’s a whole detailed area to train to.

And the two [pictures] down the bottom, search and rescue, as I mentioned. The guy in the left corner is Raphael Dinelli in December 1996. I saw the headline that was on the

- 5 -

front page of The Sydney Morning Herald, because I remember I was in Sydney, and I picked it up in the morning and it said, ‘The Loneliest Man in the World’. He was standing [with water] up to here on his sinking yacht, 1400 nautical miles south of Australia. In the middle of the deep, deep, Southern Ocean, probably with only a few hours to live, a P-3 found him, dropped stores and vectored in another yachtsman, Pete Goss I think it was, to pick him up. The guy on the right was Dubois in January 1997 in the same around-the-world yacht race, again a long way south [of Australia]. P-3s got down there, found him, dropped him a lift raft and supplies and kept tracking the upturned boat for about three days, until HMAS Adelaide went in and picked him up. The Tony bullimore rescue was also part of that mission and the two rescues were within 50 nm of each other. So that was a great operation to be a part of. But again, it highlights the reach, flexibility and speed of the maritime patrol force.

The Time Imperative -Corrosion

Replace the ageing AP-3C Aircraft

All right, so what we’ve got now is obviously the P-3. I won’t go through this too much. You can see that the squadrons and the capabilities it has but it’s getting old. By the time we get our first P-8, I think the oldest P-3 will be approaching 40 years old. With that sort of age they are safe aircraft but, like an older car, they take more servicings, more inspections and some parts get more difficult to source. We have corrosion and cracking that again is not unsafe but it’s just more effort, more time and more expense. And also the sensors, even though they’ve been updated through the years, are getting older and a bit out-dated. The P-3 has been a fantastic capability, and continues to be so, but that’s the reasoning why we need to move to the new platform. Here’s an example of some corrosion. I think it’s in the centre wing area somewhere. Not a great place to have serious corrosion. It’s difficult to get to, difficult to repair and costly, and frequent inspections are required. The P-8, being a new aircraft, will be a large improvement in this area and will have a lot of anti-corrosion measures built in.

- 6 -

Capability RequirementA vital part of Australia’s National Maritime Strategy

White Paper 2013 - Maritime Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Response

‘The Government intends to replace the AP-3C fleet with P-8A Poseidon aircraft, complemented by unmanned aircraft capable of undertaking broad area maritime surveillanceand fleet overwatch.

The goal is to provide long-range, long-endurance maritime surveillance and response and aneffective anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare capability.

Defence will continue to investigate options for a mixed manned and unmanned aircraft fleet to inform Government consideration later in the decade.’

Submarine Periscope

Search and Rescue Region

So this is what was in the White Paper 2013 and although I haven’t seen the new White Paper draft, I would expect similar words. A couple of things I’d highlight there is a mixture of manned and unmanned aircraft. Triton’s not yet fully approved but we will go back to Government to seek approval for Triton. Maritime surveillance and fleet overwatch are both mentioned. So it’s not all just going out and just surveilling an area—it’s actually protecting the fleet and working with the fleet. It’s also response and it’s anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare; so there’s combat roles in there as well. It’s not just surveillance and ISR.

- 7 -

Anti Submarine WarfareSearch, Track, Attack

Anti Surface WarfareAttack

Search and Rescue

Anti Surface Unit Warfare

Search, Identify

Track

Maintain the

Maritime Picture

ISR Support

to Government

Intel Data

available across DSN

AIR 7000 Ph2B

ResponseMaritime Patrol

Multi Mission Sensor Suite

Large Weapon Payload

P-8A

Poseidon

MQ-4C

Triton

AIR 7000 Ph1B

PersistentLong Range ISR

Search Sensor Suite

C4I Network Node

Family of Systems to replace AP-3C Orion

Complementary

12 6

All right, so the transition to the P-8. Where are we at and what are we doing? To start with, I just wanted to put this slide up, and I mentioned it at the start. The US Navy back in the early 2000’s did a study and came up with what they thought was the best system —a family of systems approach. You’ve got the range and the persistence of Triton—and I’ve got a slide later on to show the extreme range that it is capable of and it’s quite impressive—and the complementary system of the manned platform, which can respond with sensors and weapons. It can do the anti-submarine warfare, search and rescue that Triton can’t really do, apart from contributing to the surface picture. But they share this middle ground here, which is maintaining the maritime picture. And they both do this really, contributing ISR support, but complementary systems.

The number [of P-8s] I’ve got there is 12. We’re currently approved for eight. We are going back to Government early next year to seek approval for another four because that’s what we need to do the job. I can’t go into the exact details of why but independent planning has shown that we need 12 to do all those missions like ASW and ISR operations. They’re resource intensive. And we need six Tritons as well but that’s not going to Government for final approval until later.

- 8 -

P-8A Schedule

• Overall - On track• Planned Delivery Schedule

• Mar 16: Facilities commence EDN• Apr 16: Aircrew/Maint transition training

starts (VP-30 NAS Jacksonville)• Nov 16: First RAAF P-8A Rollout• 2017: OT&E, introduction to all roles• Q1 2018: IOC• Jul 18: Aust based training commences • Q4 2018: Last Aircraft • Q4 2019: FOC• 2019+: Additional 4 x P-8As

The P-8A schedule—so we’re on track. As I mentioned, at the end of next year, we should see our first P-8. Boeing is doing a pretty good job of producing the aircraft. I think we’re about the 56th P-8 to come off the line, or we will be. The long lead parts for our [first] P-8 are in production in Kansas and the fuselage will go to Seattle and the entire aircraft will start to be assembled early next year.

The facilities are very close to commencing. Lend Lease have got the contract for that for Edinburgh and I’ll talk more about facilities later, but we’ll see that commence in earnest in March [2016].

Training. Our [training] facilities aren’t going to be ready in time for the first aircraft and that was a deliberate decision some time ago, [based on] the way the money’s spread across the project. So we’re going to have a couple of years without our training facilities, without simulators. So the plan is to do our initial training, for the first two years or so, in the States at VP30 and the US Naval Aviation Technical Training Unit (CNATTU). We’ve already got people there who are trained on the P-8 and fully integrated into VP-30 and CNATTU and they will stay on for a posting, build up their experience and assist with USN and RAAF training, both aircrew and maintainers. April ’16 is when we start transitioning our actual crews and maintenance teams to P-8.

OT&E [operational test and evaluation] will be in 2017, getting the P-8 introduced to all our roles in the Australian environment. Really we’re looking at the Australian communication system as the P-8 will connect to our communication system and making sure our maintenance and engineering/spares support, etc in our environment are all working. We will also look at our own tactics development, leveraging heavily off the US Navy procedures.

By mid-2018, we should be able to start our own training. That’s when the training devices will all be ready to start and by the end of ’18 we’ll have the last of the eight [aircraft]. After 2019, should the Government approve it, we will start to get the additional four aircraft coming in.

- 9 -

AIR7000 Programmatic View

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027

Ph2B/2D P-8A Poseidon (12)RAAF EDN

Calender Year

AP-3C ORIONRAAF EDN

AP-3C ORIONRAAF EDNPWDPWD

P-8A Major UpdatePh2C

Ph1BMQ-4C Triton

That’s a very simplified view of what I just said. Phase 2C is the next major update of the P-8. The P-8 will be updated continually through its life. Even when we first get it, there’ll be software and minor hardware to be fitted to the aircraft. So that’s going to be a rolling kind of upgrade process but 2C is the first of the larger upgrades. And [Phase] 1B is the Triton, so you can see the timeline there.

I guess one thing I would highlight is that this is where we are now and 92 Wing have already started the transition with people posting over to the States. Really, I think the wing is going to be in transition through till around this point [2025] when we hopefully have all our Tritons. No doubt, there’ll still be some more developments happening but this period here will be the major transition period for 92 Wing.

P-3s are planned to withdraw completely by mid-2019. They’ve already started retiring some aircraft. P-3s will continue training and operations until the P-8 is up to speed and we have enough of them, enough trained crews and support systems in place to take on the operational roles. So the P-3 still has to shoulder some burden for the next few of years. That’s why it’s important to keep good people on the P-3 up until it withdraws from service.

- 10 -

Acquisition and Support Strategy

• Procurement with the US Navy under a Cooperative Program- Australia require 12 aircraft. The USN up to 117 aircraft.- Shared acquisition, engineering and logistics functions- Cooperatively developed future capability- Sustainment efficiencies for the P-8A fleet

• RAAF P-8A is virtually identical to USN P-8A• P-8A is a mature capability – 29 aircraft in service with USN • P-8A Sustainment Management Unit established within

MPSPO

Acquisition and Support Strategy. We are in a cooperative program for the P-8A with the US Navy. We pay to be part of that program. We’ve been in it for some time. With that we have people over in the Joint Project Office in the States. A lot of this is run through CASG but we also have some aircrew over there as part of that team, and one OT&E person. It also gives us great visibility into the program and where it’s going.

And we also get a seat at the table for the future development of the aircraft or the aircraft system. We’re a minor party compared to the US, but I think we’ve got 7 percent of the overall fleet, or something like that. But we do get a voting right and we have utilised that to put things on the table. An example would be bringing a SAR kit forward. It was not going to be there initially but Australia lobbied hard to bring that SAR kit forward so the aircraft is now coming with an interim SAR kit. And I think MH370 also helped the US Navy support that. But remember, they don’t do the SAR role as much as we do because they’ve got the Coast Guard—so it’s not a major role for the US P-8 force.

There are also sustainment efficiencies by being part of a much bigger fleet. Spares cost less, the actual aircraft costs less because we’re part of the big buy of the aircraft. So there’s some cost savings in the cooperative program as well but it gives us a lot of detailed knowledge of the P-8. We’re kind of inside the tent, if you like, and get great access.

Our aircraft will be virtually identical to the US Navy and we want to keep it that way. It will have a different paint scheme with a RAAF roundel and the squadron tail flashes. But apart from that, there’s minimal changes. It will be a challenge, I think, to keep it that way and there might be times when we do have to slightly vary it if the operational need exists, but that should be the exception. Any changes that did occur would likely need engineering and support through the Joint Project Office in the States and would probably be cleared on the whole P-8 fleet. So it’s quite different [to the present setup]. It’s not my area—I’m an aircrew guy, obviously—but a different paradigm for MPSPO [Maritime Patrol System Project Office]. We’re starting to get a grip on all that now.

- 11 -

How is that process going to work, the engineering support back through the US Navy and the joint set-up? But it is looking promising and utilises the much larger USN resources.

It’s a failry mature capability for the USN. We’re coming in, we’re getting the second increment of the P-8. We’re not getting the first one, which is good. US Navy have 29 aircraft and I’ve got a slide in a moment with the number of hours they’ve flown. So it’s not a brand new capability. Still fairly new but not brand new, which I think is good. MPSPO are gearing up now for: ‘How do we sustain and support the P-8?’

The US have completed three operational deployments [with P-8s] to Kadena [US Air Base in Japan], doing operations in the Western Pacific and exercises. They’ve been down here. They were only here in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago, doing an anti-submarine warfare exercise. They’ve got nearly half of their squadrons now operating the P-8. So they’re significantly down the transition path and we’re learning a lot of lessons from them, which is very good. And you can see the number of hours flown [49 000]. The P-8 is flying a lot and we’re getting more and more data as time goes on, for maintenance and stats and what spares we need etc. It’s constantly evolving.

RAAF Base EdinburghRAAF Base Edinburgh

Operating Base Upgrades

Main Operating Base• Aircraft Parking Apron• Maintenance Hangar Facilities• Mission, Maintenance and Logistics Support Facilities• Operational Conversion Facility• 92 Wing Headquarters• Other Minor Facilities• Runway Extension and Threshold Strengthening• Taxiway Strengthening• High Intensity Approach Lighting•Temporary Facilities

RAAF Base DarwinRAAF Base Darwin

RAAF Base RAAF Base TownsvilleTownsville

RAAF BaseRAAF Base PearcePearce

Forward Operating Base • Combined Maintenance Hangar and Mission Support Facility• Aircraft Parking Apron• Displaced Aircraft Parking Apron• Aircraft Rinse Facility

Forward Operating Base• Aircraft Rinse Facility• Runway Extension and Threshold Strengthening• Aircraft Parking Apron• Ordnance Loading Apron

* HMAS Stirling Upgrades•New Explosive Ordnance Storage Facility• Upgrade of Existing Torpedo Maintenance Facility

Forward Operating Base • Aircraft Rinse Facility• Runway Extension• Ordnance Loading Apron

Facilities. There is a lot of facilities work about to begin for the P-8. It’s about $700M, which is a lot of money—mostly at Edinburgh and I’ll go into that in a moment. Darwin is probably the other main base and we’re putting a hangar up there. At Pearce and Townsville, we’re doing some runway extensions and other work. You can see there the sorts of things we’re doing. Plus [HMAS] Stirling, because of the Mark 54 torpedo servicings, etc, is getting some minor upgrades as well. AIR7000 is paying for all that and a lot of work is about to commence over the next few years. I’ve got a flythrough video at the end—hopefully it will work—of what the 92 Wing precinct is going to look like. It’s quite impressive.

- 12 -

RAAF Edinburgh Facilities

New 92WG Precinct:- Hangars- Tactical Ops Centre (TOC)- Maintenance and Aircrew Training- Crew Preparation and Briefing

But just a couple of slides here, so the 1950’s. This is the RAAF Base Edinburgh flight line. Those hangars are still there. Don’t know about these tanks, or whatever they are, but the hangars are definitely still there. I think people from there would recognise it and that’s the main road going down towards 92 Wing, which is over here. So I click forward to the 1980’s, we’re looking from over here. These are the hangars that are definitely still there and compass swing [area]. This area here, is where the new precinct is going to be, which is going to look like [this slide] with two new hangars. The whole of 92 Wing will be in this precinct, which, from those outside of the wing, probably doesn’t sound like much but, at the moment, 92 Wing is spread over [a large area with] probably a couple of kilometres separation between aircrew and ground crew, between the flight line and where aircrew, operations and the headquarters are. So just having everyone in the same precinct will be fantastic from a cultural and organisational point of view.

This is the training building with all the simulators and I’ll talk about that in a moment. Logistics is behind here and then the two hangars. This area will be where aircrew and maintenance live and work and you can walk straight out onto the tarmac. A bit like 36 Squadron, for those who’ve been up there, walk straight out onto the flight line and go.

- 13 -

RAAF Darwin Facilities

New 92WG Precinct:- Hangar- TOC- Crew Preparation and Briefing

The new Darwin [facilities are] a little bit smaller, but include a hangar and a briefing/debriefing/HQ area. TOC stands for Tactical Operations Centre, so that’s the P-8 one. And I don’t talk about it much in the brief, but it comes with its own Ops Centre. A lot of the aircraft data has to be uploaded onto the aircraft and that generation is done in the TOC. All the communications come back through the TOC and then go out to other areas. So that is also a new area for our CISCONs [Communications Information Systems Controllers] and CETECHs [Communications Electronic Technicians] to come up to speed with, and I’ll talk about communications fit-out in a moment. There’s a lot of enhancement there for the P-8 to what we have now.

End of Part 1

Note that words contained in square brackets [] were added during the editing process for clarity.

- 14 -

P-8 Poseidon – The Next Step in Maritime Patrol

by

Group Captain Roger McCutcheon

An Air Power Seminar given at Canberra on 8 December 2015

Part 2 of Transcript

P-8A Training Devices

• Operational Flight Trainer (OFT) X 2• Weapons Tactics Trainer (WTT) X 2• Part Task Trainer (PTT)• Virtual Maintenance Trainer (VMT)

• Ordnance Load Trainer (OLT)• Maintenance Training Devices (MTD)

OFT

WTT

PTT

OLT

MTDVMT

Training devices [are] another very good news story, especially for maintainers. We’ve never had this level of training devices—I’m not sure if even any of the other wings with a new aircraft type [have all these trainers]. Training devices include an Ordnance Load Trainer and maintenance training devices; there are 14 of these including trainers for engines, aircraft racks, antennas and landing gear. There’s a whole host of maintenance training devices coming in. Also Virtual Maintenance Trainers—I saw these in Jacksonville when I was over there earlier this year. It’s basically massive screens and you can walk up and [using] a touch screen, open panels/conduct maintenance actions on the aircraft. The instructor can introduce faults into the system. So, for example, if you were doing refuelling [on the trainer] and there’s a indicator light that flashes, you’ve got to work out what to do, things like that. These training devices will be very good for our capability.

From the aircrew side, we’ve got the two Operational Flight Trainers (OFTs) for the pilots and two weapon trainers for the back-end crew. They will be linked. When they’re doing a crew mission, the pilots will be in the OFT and they’ll be linked to the back-end crew IN the Weapon Trainer and talking on the intercom as if they were in the aircraft. We’ve only got one of each at the moment [for the P-3] and they’re not linked and nowhere

- 1 -

near as capable as these will be. So that’s going to be very good. As well, there is a part-task trainer, but only one of these. This will be heavily utilised, essentially for the mission crew, mainly to do training in a part-task set-up. The training devices are a significant leap forward for 92 Wing. By mid-2018, we should have all of this up and running. And I should add that the aircrew devices will be enabled to link into the live virtual constructive network as a separate future project to get connected to other simulators.

P-8A Aircrew Training

• Dependency on high fidelity simulators

• Classified training in complex environments

• Live training is an expensive venture, investment in simulator technology to reduce costs

• Contemporary training paradigms

67% 33%

15% 85%

Pilot training hoursSimulatorOn aircraft

SimulatorOn aircraft

AP-3C

P-8A

31% Training 69% Operations

22% Training 78% Operations

Operational flying hours

AP-3C

P-8A

Such capable simulators means that we don’t need to spend as much time in the aircraft doing training and more hours can be devoted to operations. So that pretty much sums up this slide—less [training] hours compared to the P-3 because the simulators will be very capable.

That’s a happy snap of our guys over in Jacksonville at the moment, seven aircrew and three maintainers. They’re all qualified on the P-8 now. The aircrew are just in the final stages of their instructor training. One of the QFIs is already training US Navy co-pilots on board the P-8, which I think is pretty impressive when they only got there in January, but they’ll all be qualified soon. And the three maintainers who went mid-year, they’re qualified on the P-8 for maintenance. They’re now doing on-the-job training with VP-30. In fact those guys are going to become experts in those simulators that we just showed. They’re actually going to be involved in the testing of those simulators because they’re not fully up yet for the US Navy. I think it’s next year that they’re introducing them and getting them up so, so our guys will come back with a lot of knowledge on those simulators. The concept is for contractors to support the simulation devices. The actual instructing will be done by uniformed personnel, but there’ll be quite a lot of contracting support, supporting the training system.

- 2 -

P-8A Poseidon MaintenanceKeeping the aircraft serviceable and able to fight

• On-Aircraft Operational Maintenance (OM)• Conducted by uniformed personnel• Deliver operational capability• Scheduled and unscheduled• Maintenance on the aircraft

• Preventative Maintenance• Aircraft rinse

Speaking of maintenance, these are fairly simple slides, I guess, but broken down into operational maintenance and the next slide is deeper level maintenance. The paradigm we’ve been in is where uniformed [personnel] do the operational level maintenance and contractors largely do the depot level maintenance. We are investigating if there can be a little bit more integration between those two worlds. That will depend on funding though because obviously if you get contractors to do some of the work, there’s [additional] costs there, which can be significant throughout the life [of the aircraft]. But we are looking at investigating that and trying to work out the best way to do it.

And you can see there the sorts of things that happen in this space—scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. There shouldn’t be too much unscheduled maintenance on the P-8, being a brand new aircraft, unless you take a bird or something like that. There are scheduled checks, calendar-based, that they have to go in and service the aircraft. And then there’s preventative maintenance, like aircraft rinse, what we call the ‘bird bath’ where the aircraft goes through a wash after the flight to wash off the salt and avoid some of that corrosion that we’re seeing now on the P-3.

- 3 -

P-8A Poseidon MaintenanceKeeping the aircraft serviceable and able to fight

• On-Aircraft Deeper Maintenance (DM)• Scheduled, routine, major servicing.• Conducted by contractor.• Performed in Australia.• First due after six years of aircraft life.

Deeper level maintenance. The first one of these won’t be due till 2022, so we’ve got some time, but after that there’ll be a regular induction of the aircraft into deeper level maintenance. The plan is to do it in Australia and it will be a contractor that will be doing that work. But again, we might look to put some uniform people in there, which is not a new concept. I think we’re doing that now on other aircraft types where we put some maintainers in there to build experience in that deeper level maintenance, for technical mastery of the aircraft system.

- 4 -

P-8A to AP-3C Comparison

All right, so that’s transition, where we’re at, a couple of the key areas. I’ve talked about the need. Now I’ll delve into the P-8 itself. So this is just a real quick snap of the size of it, a little bit wider and a little bit longer than the P-3. Some basic stats—again it will get out to on-task faster than the P-3. Being a jet, that’s not surprising. It also can go a little bit further and stay a little bit longer. Not significantly—we’re talking kind of 100-200 miles probably further and staying perhaps another hour or so on station. But, hey, it’s still good. Anything better is good. And there’s coverage of that.

Boeing P-8A Poseidon

One thing I would highlight is that air-to-air refuelling is coming. It’s not yet cleared on the aircraft. Testing for that should begin next year through the various tanker types. The KC-30 will be cleared for the P-8 next year or the year after. That will come and it will be a very big change for us to do air-to-air refuelling and will give extreme range for the aircraft. So it’s not something the maritime world has done before. It’s not that we can’t do it but it will be a change and give a lot longer range. Rations could be the limiting factor.

- 5 -

This was a slide I stole from somewhere but it shows the ranges of the P-3 and the P-8 with four hours on station. These are operating from regional type bases. The Triton, with ten hours on station, is operating from Australian bases. So to me, that just indicates the persistence and the range of the Triton. Three Tritons can do 24 hours’ coverage at 2,000 miles—so Triton will be a much bigger change to our whole concept [of operations] than the P-8. The P-8 is effectively enhancing and replacing the P-3 because we have to, and it’s got some great gear that I’ll go through in a moment, but Triton will be a huge leap forward, and being unmanned as well. And unmanned is a bit of a misnomer because there are lots of people on the ground supporting Triton, just no-one on the platform. But don’t think of it as an unmanned system. But yes, I thought that was, range and endurance-wise, pretty impressive.

- 6 -

Boeing P-8A Poseidon• Based on the Boeing 737-

800 with 737-900 wings

• Heaviest 737 aircraft in the world

• Purpose built military aircraft – major changes to commercial 737

• Not a modified commercial aircraft.

Okay for the aircraft itself, it is purpose-built as a military aircraft. It’s based on the 737 Next Generation, the 800 and the 900. It is the heaviest 737 in the world at 189 000 pounds, so it is quite significant and that’s why we need to upgrade some of the runways and facilities work to get the most out of it. That’s not to say the P-8 won’t be able to use some of the airfields, but to get the most out of it, we need to upgrade some of them. But back to the P-8—it’s purpose-built from the ground up as a military aircraft and with significant strengthening, which I’ll go through. In fact, I’m going through now.

So this is quite a detailed slide but as it builds, [it shows] three times the strengtheners in the wing because of the low-level operations that the P-8 will do, or is doing now. There’s some perception out there that it’s a commercial airliner and it’s only going to be able to operate at a high level. That’s not true. It can operate down to 200 feet and has been designed to do that.

Propulsion—I won’t talk about that too much. Wiring—I was lucky enough to go through the Boeing facility and [saw] quite a lot of optical fibre down the back; a lot of wiring for all the electronic systems, but significant use of optical fibre. Environment control system—probably more to keep the computer racks cool than the humans but you can see where it’s clustered where a lot of the avionics are. Hydraulics—these are all changes to the 737-800, -900. Oxygen—the P-3 aircrew will be glad to hear that there’s three hours of oxygen for everybody—including passengers. So that’s all wired into the aircraft. Fire detection—there is significant fire detection throughout the aircraft, including in some of the bays underneath [the floor]. Wedgetail had, I think, some issues there with fire detection and suppression. The P-8 will have it.

Fuel—think of a 737 where the bags go, and there’s massive fuel [tanks], almost like the containers they put luggage in, that’s what it looked like to me. You can get them out. It would be a major piece of maintenance to pull one out, but you can do it. The tanks are self-contained and obviously in the wings as well. About 70,000 pounds of fuel, so not hugely different to the P-3 but because of the efficiencies at high level, that’s where your extra range and endurance comes from. And better engines.

- 7 -

Weapons—I’ll talk about that separately. Acoustics—I’ll cover that later as well. And you’ve got all your crew stations, your electronic racks. Counter-measures—I’ll cover that. Electro-optical kit—there’s only one of them but it can be moved fore or aft. Typically it would be on the forward [part] of the aircraft. Antennas for all the different radios, etc.

737-800 Flight Deck with P-8A Modifications

So this is what the flight deck looks like—737-like but not the same and I’ve got a difference slide in a moment. There’s a jump seat in between the pilots where you can sit as a passenger, but no flight engineer, which will be a big change to the P-3 for the aircrew. But a very modern cockpit, lots of automation. I think for the aircrew, this will be the biggest change in training because of the amount of change in the cockpit. But from the guys over there [in the US], they love flying the P-8 and it flies very well. So, it’s good.

- 8 -

P-8A vs 737NG

P-8A Differences(Compared to a Standard 737-800)

I won’t go through this very much but again, these are the changes to the standard 737 cockpit, things like electronic warfare, self-protection and tactical displays. There’s a switch in the middle here that turns off some of the low level warnings that you would get in a standard 737, because the aircraft will operate at low level so it disables some of those warnings. And differences in the control units et cetera, et cetera. So quite a lot of differences compared to the 737.

Head Up Display (HUD)

It has a HUD. I won’t talk to that but most military aircraft do now so that’s good. Down the back, aircraft systems, and I’ll talk through most of these in a moment, but lots of different radios, lots of different connectivity. I think that’s a huge change in the P-8, the way it’s connected to the environment and because of that, the amount of information it will be able to pass and pull to help the crew will be significant. I’ll talk communications in

- 9 -

a moment. The radar is based on the APS-137. It’s quite capable but improving in the future. Electro-optical kit—I’ll talk to that in the moment. It’s quite good.

Aircraft Systems

Multimode radarAN/APY-10Surface Search Periscope Detection Color Weather NavISARSAR240 degTrack-While-Scan256 contactsIFF interrogation

Tactical workstations

INMARSAT antenna

Wing pylons (2 per wing)

WESCAM MX-20HD EO/IR TurretEOHD 1280x1024IRSD 640x512

Plain VoiceVHF x 2INMARSATSecure VoiceV/UHF x 3HF x 1UHF/SATCOM x 2

TCDLLINK 16INMARSATBLOS IP SIPRNET/(DSN) connectivity

ESM: ALQ-240Based on ALQ-218 fitted to EA-18G

Weapon bay

WeaponsMk54 LWTMk54 HAAWC (2020)AGM-84D Block 1C

StoresTotal Buoys = 126SSQ-36 BTSSQ-53 DIFARSSQ-62 DICASSSSQ-101 ADARSSQ-125 LFCSSUS and Smokes (Mk25/Mk58)SAR store Initial 2 x 8-10 persSAR store 5 x 20 pers (2018)

AcousticsAN/AQQ-2(V)1 Receive, process and record 64 channels of passive and active dataConcurrently process multiple buoy types and modes Receive, collect, analyze, and disseminate environmental dataInbuilt ClassificationGPS buoysMulti-static Active Coherent

Acoustics is significantly better. With 64 channels it can monitor, compared to 16 on the P-3. For those who don’t know, the MPA drops sonobuoys into the water that listen for noise in the water through an array of antennas under the water and that’s one way of detecting submarines, or ships, in fact, as well. So the P-8 has some significant improvements there. I’ll talk more about acoustics later.

Weapons and stores. A lot more sonobuoys—126. SAR [search and rescue] stores—I mentioned earlier that the aircraft is coming with an initial two life rafts that were developed for the Indian Navy because they’ve also got P-8s. A very different version to ours but that’s what it will initially come with. Out for tender now is the capability to deploy five 20-man life rafts from the bomb bay. And the bomb bay is back here. I think I’ve got a picture of that in a moment. Once we have that, what we’re calling the Objective SAR capability—five 20-man life rafts with overflow, with stores—will be a significant leap on what we can deploy now from the P-3.

Weapons. I’ll probably cover it again but the P-8 will have the Mark 54 torpedo and not yet, but coming soon, is the high altitude variant of that where it will be a glide [weapon] and you’ll be able to deploy the weapon from outside a weapon engagement zone. Development is going on now in the US.

And one change from the P-3 is that there’s no MAD, magnetic anomaly detector, system. So when you fly fairly low over say a submarine, a metal mass, something that’s got a magnetic signature, you’ll get a big spike on the [MAD] sensor. The P-8 doesn’t have that and that was a deliberate decision because of this high altitude sensor and the extra acoustics and this, what we’re calling ‘multi-static active’. A lot of work is going into that at the moment where a sonobuoy will get put into the ocean, put out a large ping of energy. Other sonobuoys that are deployed will pick it up. So there are some quite exciting developments going on in that area. It’s not new technology but it’s

- 10 -

getting to the point now where it’s actually working. So that’s good.

Crew• Pilot (P)

• Co Pilot (CP)

• Tactical Coordinator (TACCO)

• Co-Tactical Coordinator (COTAC)

• Sensor Operators:

• Acoustic Air Warfare Operators (AAW)

• Electronic Air Warfare Operators (EW)

• AP-3C differences: No Flight Engineer or Sensor Employment Manager

The crew. [The P-8] is crewed by two to three pilots, two air combat officers—which is not really that different to what we have now—and five to six Air Electronic Analysts (AEAs), sensor operators, down the back. There are two at the acoustic workstation; there’s an EW workstation but then there’s ordnance operators as well and I’ll cover that in a moment. So we’ll need people down there doing that for ASW, plus observers to look out the window for search and rescues and rotate through. So that’s why there are six AEAs. We’ll have an extra workstation, in fact that’s coming before the next increment so we’ll see that in probably 2018/2019.

I’ve talked about no flight engineer. There’s also no Sensor Employment Manager [SEM] which probably means nothing to anyone outside the maritime world but that was an officer down the back who was in charge of the AEAs and did a lot of managing of the sensor operators and information they gathered. There’s no space for that on the P-8 but that’s okay as the duties will be picked up by other crew and the tactical systems will be more automated.

- 11 -

P-8A Communications

• Plain Voice• VHF x 2• INMARSAT

• Secure Voice• V/UHF x 3• HF x 1• UHF/SATCOM x 2

• Link 11• U/HF, SATCOM

• Link 16• Incl Link 11/16 Data forwarding• 2 voice channels• V/UHF

• IBS, GCCS

• AIS

• TCDL

• Ku and X band

• IP capable

• INMARSAT

• BLOS IP @ 432kbps

• SIPRNET/(DSN) connectivity

• Email, IM, chat, web browsing/posting

• ACARS

Communications. I mentioned this is as a significant change from the P-3. INMARSAT [International Maritime Satellite Organization] SATCOM [satellite communications], which will be secure as well. I’ll just highlight some of the changes [from the P-3]. Link 16 is the current version of Link, so we’ll catch up to where a lot of the other platforms are and be part of that Link 16 network. These are common operating picture systems. AIS [Automatic Identification System] is a merchant shipping system [which transmits the ships details via satellite] and is fully automated on the P-8. If you have the interrogator, you can look at your map and see an AIS track and click on it and it will tell you what vessel it is and what port it’s from and show a picture of it, etc. That’s providing they’ve got it turned on and someone hasn’t tampered with it. So you might still go and need to look at it but it is a good way of looking at contacts. It helps out.

Remember I mentioned that over Iraq and Afghanistan, the P-3 was beaming video down to the troops? Well, TCDL [tactical common data link] is the next version of that.

This will be a significant change. In a P-8, when you log on as an aircrew guy, you will log onto secure ADF networks on the aircraft. So what does that mean? It means the crew can get information directly from secure websites. An unclassified example would be getting weather information or putting data onto a website directly from aircraft in flight. It may not sound like much, but just speeds up the whole passage of information. You can also send/receive emails on the aircraft. You can utilise secure chat capabilities with other assets and C2 agencies. A lot of C2, command and control, in the air and maritime operations are now done this way. So we’ll have chat, and as I said, web browsing and posting and the ability to get information, but also pass information very quickly live, back to areas like DGS-AUS [Distributed Ground Station Australia], for those who know it. The analysts on the ground will quickly analyse some of the videos and some of the photos etc and some of the other information that comes [from the P-8] and get it out to the people who need to use it very quickly.

So that’s quite an exciting area and there’s still work going on. I think P-8 will be a little bit of a trailblazer here, in that this is all fully integrated into the aircraft and we don’t

- 12 -

want to change the aircraft itself because that’s a configuration change from the US Navy and then we’re off on our own as an orphan system. So we need to adapt the ground environment to make it work for us. So a lot of work is going on at the moment so we will get there and it will be very good when that happens.

ACARS [Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System] is a civilian 737 automated-type reporting system [for aircraft data]. I was only looking at it this morning and confirming what ACARS actually was. But you can actually send information over that. You can get weather information. You can communicate to the ground. But it’s a 737 system but it will be another good system to have on board, I think, from what I read.

Mission Computing and Display Subsystem

• Dual ultra-high-resolution 24-in diagonal screens

• Common tactical situation display for all operators

• Displays all on-board and off-board track data in one view

• Multiple layers with variable transparency for maps and tactical overlays

• Operator-customized display settings and filters

Okay, so just running through some of the stations. The displays themselves are vey impressive—big screens, good resolution. You walk on board a P-8 and the thing that struck me was how clean it is inside. The P-3 has got radio boxes and crew stations and bits and pieces everywhere. On the P-8, everything is online. I think the only box I could see was the intercom box and the pullout oxygen masks that you put over your face. The rest of it is all on the computer—it’s all online. So it’s very clean and sleek inside, which is good.

- 13 -

• Receive, process and record 64 channels of passive and active data

• Concurrently process multiple buoy types and modes

• Receive, collect, analyze, and disseminate environmental data

• Inbuilt Classification

• GPS buoys (future)

• High-resolution color presentation

• Sonobuoy Positioning System

• Multi-static Active Coherent

ACOUSTICS

Acoustics. I’ve already mentioned the number of buoys; mentioned the multi-static. The aircraft’s got a sonobuoy positioning system. GPS buoys are actually coming a little bit later. They’re not in yet but they will come. For the P-3 guys in the room, this is like the SRS system where it’s getting the transmissions from the sonobuoys and working out different receptions and where they are in the water, which is obviously good to know. But good, good displays. Our guys in Jacksonville are saying the acoustic system is excellent.

- 14 -

Multi-Mode Surveillance Radar

Based on APS 137D (V5)

Surface Search

Periscope Detection

Color Weather/Navigation

Multi-Target Track-While-Scan (256 contacts)

Inverse Synthetic Aperture (ISAR)

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)

Maritime Strike Targeting

APY-10 RADAR

• Reduced weight• Improved MTBF• Increased Track Capability

• Full integration with Boeing mission system

APY-10

The radar is based on the APS-137. Compared to the acoustics, the radar is probably not as much of an improvement but is still a capable radar. There is more work going into the radar to make it even better for the future. But it’s a solid radar and talking to the guys over there, it’s good enough and future improvements will occur.

- 15 -

Electro-Optical/Infrared

MX-20HD

• Modular Payload • High Definition (HD) Electro-

Optic and Infrared (SD) imaging sensors

• Highly Stabilized• Onboard Image Processing (gain,

level, contrast)• Color day camera

• Zoom lens• Monochrome day camera

• Four fields of view (focal lengths)

• High resolution • Infrared night camera

• Four fields of view

A little bit similar is electro-optical—the WESCAM EO system. There are already plans to upgrade this to the next variant. So at the moment it’s high definition electro-optic and standard definition for infra-red. I believe it’s moving to high definition completely in the next variant but it looked pretty good to me. I’m not an EO operator but it could certainly zoom in a fair way, from what I could see.

- 16 -

Weapons and Stores

TORPEDOMK 54 Capacity of 5 HAAWC (2018-19)

HARPOON Capacity of 6

SAR KIT Interim 2016 Capacity of 2 Full P-8A SAR Kit 2018 Capacity of 5

Weapons and stores: As I mentioned, the bomb bay is down the back. I think the next slide talks about the acoustics but there are no explosives used to deploy sonobuys. It’s all done by pneumatic air, by compressed air, including stores from the bomb bay. So that’s quite a change. Five stations in the bomb bay. Mark 54 [torpedo], which will be a much more capable weapon than the Mark 46, which is what we have now. I’ve talked about the high altitude weapon, the SAR kit and six Harpoons, two carried in the mid-fuselage and four on the wings.

- 17 -

Ordnance System

Sonobuoy Storage Racks

Rotary Sonobuoy Launchers

Pressurized Chutes

Free Fall Chute

Ordnance. Now this is a little bit interesting but these things are rotary launchers. They hold ten sonobuoys each. There has been some issues with them, but improvements are being made. The good thing is that the aircraft can carry a lot more sonobuoys but this system and loading these things up, I think will take a little bit of effort down the back of the aircraft when doing anti-submarine warfare. The good news for the operators is there’ll be no CAD [cartridge activated device] fumes down the back because there’s no explosives, so it will smell a lot better. There’s no external buoys either, so it will all be happening down the back of the aircraft when conducting ASW.

There are three pressurised chutes to get sonobuoys out and one free-fall chute; no doors. There’s a door there but it doesn’t open inflight so there’s no Helibox to deploy. We are looking at utilising a store buoy concept being developed for the P-3 that they can basically put some stores in and fire it out in a sonobuoy-size container. We’re looking at that and interested in getting that cleared onto the P-8 as well.

- 18 -

EWSP System

• LAIRCM• AN/AAR-54 Missile Warning Sensors and processors that detect missile

launches and provide missile data to the EWSP

• AN/AAQ-24(V) LAIRCM Processor that provides overall control and allocation of jamming

• AN/AAQ-24(V) Guardian Pointer Tracker Assembly that performs closed loop fine tracking of an IR missile for the Viper Laser

• AN/AAQ-24(V) Viper Laser that provides a modulated all-band mid IR laser signal to jam missile’s tracking device

• ALE-47 CMDS

Electronic warfare and self-protection. It’s coming with a LAIRCM [large aircraft infra-red countermeasures] system. I don’t have any more details than what’s up there. But it’s good to have. That’s where it uses lasers to defeat weapons that are coming for the aircraft. CMDS is the Countermeasures Dispensing System, the ALE-47; there are two at the front, two at the back. It will shoot out flares, again, to defeat weapons coming your way, so that’s good.

2 AFT CMDS Dispensers

2 FWD CMDS Dispensers

ALE-47 Dispenser

Counter Measure Dispensing System(ALE-47)

- 19 -

The next couple of slides are to do with self-protection of the aircraft.

The aircraft has a system onboard called OBIGGS—Onboard Inert Gas Generator System. It produces nitrogen that it pumps into the fuel tanks to keep the oxygen level in the fuel tanks very low. I think it’s around seven per cent. So if you do take a round or something in the fuel tank in a combat situation, it should not ignite. That’s been a limitation of the P-3 for many years. This will be a system that will certainly reduce the risk of that happening on the P-8.

- 20 -

The other thing it’s got is lots of suppression bottles in some of the areas that you can’t get to—under the aircraft [floor], in the wings, the lower lobes, et cetera. So that’s a very good thing and I think, as I mentioned, Wedgetail had some issues in this area, but the P-8 will come with improved systems, so it’s very good.

All right, so having said all that, what does the P-8 bring to the fight? Well it’s going to be a new aircraft, obviously. The P-3 has done a great job over the years but it’s getting old. At the moment, though, its serviceability is doing pretty well but that’s due to a lot of effort at the wing. The P-8 should increase serviceability so when you call for a maritime aircraft to support the force, support the Navy or do a mission, then it will get airborne and it will do it. We expect it to have a very low chance of technical unserviceabilities and US Navy stats are showing that. However, we aren’t buying as many, hence the need for 12. I talked about some of the improved weapons, so the new torpedo, Harpoon are getting upgraded and especially the ASW sensors, the anti-submarine warfare sensors, will be quite a large leap forward.

For the crew, it’s much more integrated onboard. The P-3 has had a lot of laptops that have been put on, short-notice modifications, which have all been fantastic and done the job, but it’s clunky. The P-8 will be fully integrated so for the crew, systems will be much easier to use, much quicker. I’ve talked about increased connectivity and increasing more in the future, along with the Triton. Overall, with the improved sensors, weapons, range and endurance, the P-8A will deliver an enhanced ISR capability for our nation.

- 21 -

Anti Submarine WarfareSearch, Track, Attack

Anti Surface WarfareAttack

Search and Rescue

Anti Surface Unit Warfare

Search, Identify

Track

Maintain the

Maritime Picture

ISR Support

to Government

Intel Data

available across DSN

AIR 7000 Ph2B

ResponseMaritime Patrol

Multi Mission Sensor Suite

Large Weapon Payload

P-8A

Poseidon

MQ-4C

Triton

AIR 7000 Ph1B

PersistentLong Range ISR

Search Sensor Suite

C4I Network Node

Family of Systems to replace AP-3C Orion

Complementary

12 6

Okay, a couple of slides on our future to finish up with. Just again, kicking back to this one. Bear in mind that it’s a family of systems and at the moment, the Triton’s in test. There’s three aircraft at Pax River doing early testing at the moment and progressing well. But as Triton and the P-8 move forward, there’ll be a lot more synergies between the two—similar sensors, similar ground infrastructure, and data fusion engines. There’ll be a lot more commonality between the two systems, up to very high classification levels.

- 22 -

P-8A Future Development

• Increased networked operations (ISR info, weapons)

• Sensor and weapon improvements

• Increased data fusion

• Open Systems Architecture for rapid updates

• Collaborative development with MQ-4C Triton (sensors, data fusion, networks)

The future for P-8. I’ve mentioned a couple of these already. One I haven’t mentioned is open systems architecture. So think of your iPhone with apps. It will be a similar system on the future P-8 and I think probably a lot of aircraft will go this way where there’ll be an idea to update something and it will be done very quickly by putting an application onto the aircraft software and which can possibly be shared between different aircraft types. This concept will allow for very rapid updating of your software and your ability to do things. As I mentioned, it is very much collaborative development with the Triton.

- 23 -

Key Takeaways

• Importance of Maritime Patrol capability

• P-8A transition on track and getting close

• 12 x P-8A required + Triton

• USN partnership

• P-8A/Triton future co-development

• Exciting future for MPA community!

v

Last slide, I think. The key takeaways that I could think of if I was hearing this brief are shown. I tried to emphasise upfront the importance of the maritime capability for those who aren’t familiar with what it does, not just for the Air Force, but really for the nation and it goes right back to World War II. I’ve only talked about a few of the more recent operations but it is a very important capability.

We’re on track for the P-8 transition. A lot of work’s been done. More to come but we’re within a year now of our first aircraft so it’s exciting. But I guess next year we’re in the home stretch, so we’ve got to get it right. We’re in a very successful partnership with the US Navy, a cooperative program. We’ve paid to be part of that but that is working very well. We’re getting a lot of access, a lot of data, a lot of knowledge and a say in where the P-8 is going in the future. And I think, as a result of that, once we start operating the P-8, we’re going to move even closer to the US Navy, operationally. We’ve always worked with them in operations but I think there’ll be a lot more sharing of information and tactics and things like that. That’s my own view, just because we’re in a cooperative program and we’re both operating pretty much exactly the same aircraft. We’d be mad not to learn from each other.

- 24 -

- 25 -

Questions?

I’ve talked about the P-8 and Triton co-development and, yes, it’s an exciting time, probably for the whole Air Force, with everything happening but especially for the maritime community. People have already been selected to go the States next year for the transition. So I think the reality of P-8 coming to Edinburgh is rapidly coming home and when facilities start in March in earnest, then that’s really going to make people say ’Wow, this is happening.’ But the P-3 has got to keep going for a few more years yet so the old bird needs to keep going, and they will. I think that’s about it. So that’s all I have, before we go to questions.

End of Part 2

Note: Words in square brackets [ ] have been added to the transcript during the editing process for clarity.