Boeing P8 – First place in a one aircraft race
by Richard Bray
In Halifax for this week’s DEFSEC Atlantic exhibition, James Detwiler, Boeing’s international business development manager for P8/Airborne ASW&ISR Systems talked with Vanguard about the long-range maritime patrol aircraft’s capabilities and its international market potential.
As Detwiler explained, there simply aren’t many aircraft that can outperform the P8, which had its first test flight this spring. “For our sort of long-range, high-endurance, high-speed and weaponized capability, there is not a lot in the high tier,” he said. “There certainly is a robust lower end market, and some mid-range.”
Some nations are planning to bypass a big purchase, given the state of the global economy and fill in with small twin-engine turboprop aircraft, in a littoral coastal defence posture. “However, that being said, they have also indicated their interest that in a few years down the road, they would be in the market.”
Canada operates the CP-140 Aurora version of the P3. Along with the global fleet of P3 aircraft, they are running out of life. Some have had wing replacements to extend their lives, but it is safe to say Canada is in the market for new aircraft. Other countries are weighing the price differences between a brand-new aircraft and the relatively brief extended capability that re-winged P3’s would offer.
The P8 Poseidon is a significant step up from the P3. It is based on the veteran civilian 737-800 aircraft.
“We consider this the highest gross weight, longest endurance version of a 737,” Detwiler said. “However, it is engineered, designed and built as a P-8--this is not an aircraft that we roll off the commercial line and do retrofits, gut, and cut apart. It is built in-line, structurally strengthened with different metals where necessary and designed to military specifications.” It has a similar range to the P3, about 4000 nautical miles but it is about 33 percent faster and it can fly higher, above the threats.
Being able to fly at 41,000 feet is a big difference from the P3’s maximum 30,000 feet, Detwiler said. “That is significant for Afghanistan. That is a lot of country that opens up when you are able to fly over those mountains.”
Other capabilities are increased from the P3. “Take the acoustic processor on a US Navy P3 for example,” he said. “On the P8, it is about a 100 percent increase in processing capability – twice as many buoys, much more fidelity, so there is the evolutionary step and the sensors themselves are upgrades to the latest technology variants. We have to do all the missions they are doing right now, and in many cases better, and then have the open architecture for growth.”
There is already significant Canadian content on the P8, Detwiler points out, including L3 Wescam Infrared /Electro-Optical Imaging Turrets.
The United States Navy has set 2013 as the date for the P8 Poseidon to go into service. Detwiler said, “They define that as being able to deploy one fully converted squadron from P3 to P8 to any overseas location. Their nominal squadron strength is six aircraft.”
India has already signed a contract for eight P8 Posieon aircraft and take delivery of the first one in early 2013. That is not a large number of aircraft for a country with India’s strategic maritime interests. “That’s initial buy. There are opportunities for follow-on, I do know that much,” Detwiler said, “so if they are happy with the product, it’s conceivable there might be considerably more aircraft.”
Australia is another potential customer that has not yet signed an aircraft contract, but they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the US Navy for cooperative development of what Boeing calls Increment 2, which inserts new technologies and also serves as a software refresh to the baseline aircraft, which will occur in 2015.
