7 More USN P-8A Aircraft Orders for Boeing

SEATTLE — Boeing on Nov. 3 received a $1.7 billion low-rate initial production (LRIP) award from the U.S. Navy for seven additional P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft.

LRIP-II is the follow-on to an initial LRIP-I contract awarded in January to provide six Poseidon aircraft. Overall, the Navy plans to purchase 117 Boeing 737-based P-8A anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to replace its P-3 fleet.

As part of the contract, Boeing will provide aircrew and maintenance training for the Navy beginning in 2012, in addition to logistics support, spares, support equipment and tools. The training system will include a full-motion, full-visual Operational Flight Trainer that simulates the flight crew stations, and a Weapons Tactics Trainer for the mission crew stations.

“This contract is the result of the Boeing and Navy team’s hard work and commitment, and moves us a step closer to P-8A full-rate production,” said Chuck Dabundo, Boeing vice president and P-8 program manager. “We’ve assembled and flown the first LRIP plane and continue to focus on building P-8A aircraft on cost and on schedule.”

“LRIP-II brings the P-8A program one step closer to delivering the Poseidon to the fleet,” said Capt. Scott Dillon, P-8A deputy program manager for the Navy.

Boeing completed assembly of the first LRIP-I aircraft at its Renton, Wash., facility this summer. The aircraft subsequently completed a successful first flight July 7, 2011, from Renton Field to Boeing Field, which marked its transition from fabrication and assembly to mission system installation and checkout in Seattle.

The Poseidon team is using a first-in-industry in-line production process that draws on Boeing’s Next-Generation 737 production system. All P-8A-unique aircraft modifications are made in sequence during fabrication and assembly.

The team has built and is testing six flight-test and two ground-test aircraft under the U.S. Navy System Development and Demonstration contract awarded to Boeing in 2004. Four flight-test aircraft, T1, T2, T3 and T5, are conducting testing at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. The program’s static test plane, S1, completed its test program in January. S2, the fatigue test plane, will begin testing next year. Initial operational capability is planned for 2013.

A derivative of the Next-Generation 737-800, the Poseidon is built by a Boeing-led industry team that includes CFM International, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Spirit AeroSystems, BAE Systems and GE Aviation.

 

-planenews.com

Boeing propose P-8A to replace E-8A

Boeing has proposed the P-8 Airborne Ground Surveillance (AGS) to replace the aging E-8A Joint STARS. Its pre-Paris media tour reached Seattle Wednesday, with a series of briefings that focused on the Navy’s P-8A Poseidon multi-role maritime aircraft – and its planned derivatives.

On the surface, Boeing is optimistic, listing opportunities to sell 150-plus more aircraft based on the 737 platform — comprising straightforward P-8s, versions of that design and 737 Airborne Early Warning & Control aircraft. However, there are a couple of challenges.

The first is that the global intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance market is trending smaller. Only India has bought a P-8-class aircraft in recent years, while ATR has been doing a small but lively business in CN-235 maritime developments. Boeing’s second challenge is that it needs to exploit the 737-base market quickly because — in the not-too-distant future — the 737 itself will be either drastically modernized or replaced, reducing a key advantage: the fact that the military 737s share a production and supply base with hundreds of 737s per year.

This explains why Boeing is making an aggressive pitch to the USAF to buy P-8A Airborne Ground Surveillance (AGS) variants rather than extending the life of its Northrop Grumman E-8A Joint STARS fleet. The USAF has an analysis of alternatives under way, with Northrop Grumman pushing a re-engined Joint STARS with a new radar antenna.

Boeing argues that P-8A AGS would have lower nonrecurring costs as well as be less expensive to operate and start with a zero-life airframe. Boeing argues that because of the age of the airframe and other factors, updating the E-8A would involve a $10-$15 billion non-recurring cost (a number that Northrop Grumman energetically disputes.)

The Boeing AGS proposal has its quirks. The company is proposing a minimum-change version of the P-8A — heavily reinforced low-altitude structure, weapons bay and pylons, maritime radar and all. (The biggest change would be the removal of the sonobuoy launchers.) Boeing argues that a weapons capability on the AGS would be useful, but it would be a change to USAF doctrine.

The oddest feature of the proposal, though, is that the main surveillance radar is unnamed, even though it is now clear what it is most likely to be. Company officials in Seattle Wednesday finally confirmed what we concluded here four years ago: That the P-8A was designed from the outset to carry a version of the then-classified Raytheon APS-149 Littoral Surveillance Radar System (LSRS), now in service on Navy P-3 Orions. That was why Boeing switched, late in the proposal stage, to a 737-800 fuselage with an aft weapons bay, and that is also why the design has an anomalous pair of hardpoints under the forward fuselage.

Source: AVIATION WEEK

Boeing Begins Assembly of P-8A LRIP

Boeing plans to start assembly of the first of six low-rate initial production (LRIP) P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft by midyear, following the award of a $1.6 billion U.S. Navy contract.

P-8A touches down at Pax River

The LRIP-1 contract includes spares, logistics and training devices, and comes as Boeing continues to make rapid progress with the first batch of flight and ground test aircraft under the P-8A System Development and Demonstration (SDD) contract awarded in 2004.

Three of the six SDD aircraft are in flight test at NAS Patuxent River, Md., while a fourth is undergoing systems installation at Boeing Field in Seattle. The fifth aircraft arrived at Boeing Field on Jan. 22 from the 737 assembly line at nearby Renton, Wash., while the sixth aircraft, a late addition to the original SDD contract, is now in final assembly.

Boeing also completed the initial ground tests on the static airframe earlier this month and in September will transfer the aircraft to Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, California, for live-fire exercises. S2, the fatigue test airframe, will begin testing later this year, Boeing says.

The Navy is expected to take delivery of 117 P-8As by 2025 as replacements for the Lockheed Martin P-3 Orion, with entry into service due in 2013. Boeing also has started assembly work on the first of eight P-8Is for the Indian Navy and is in talks with the Australian Navy about an additional order.

The Boeing P-8 Poseidon is intended to conduct anti-submarine warfare and shipping interdiction and to engage in an electronic intelligence (ELINT) role. This will involve carrying torpedoes, depth charges, AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and other weapons. It will also be able to drop and monitor sonobuoys.

 

-aviationweek.com

-wikipedia.org

 

USN P-3C Orion Aircraft Upgraded

The U.S. Navy took delivery in January of 10 newly configured P-3C Orions installed with an upgraded acoustic system — the Acoustic Receiver Technology Refresh (ARTR) — that enhances the aircraft’s ability tenfold to receive and analyze sonobuoy data, a basic P-3C mission requirement.

The upgrades will help bridge the technology gap between the Orion and the service’s next generation maritime patrol and anti-sub warfare (ASW) aircraft, the P-8A Poseidon, creating a more common and efficient fleet.

The Navy also is establishing common signal processing code and hardware for the two fleets.

The acoustic technology upgrades are vital for the fleet, Navy program officials say, as the service moves toward a higher-altitude ASW mission mind-set. At higher altitudes, the aircraft can operate more efficiently and track more targets.

The P-8As are on schedule, program officials say, to meet initial operational capability in 2013. The Navy still plans to buy a total of 117 Poseidons, with an estimated flyaway cost of about $150 million per aircraft.

The Navy plans to deliver 74 mission-ready Orions installed with ARTR by 2012.

During the next two years, the Navy will further upgrade the P-3’s acoustics to improve its ability to digitally monitor sonobuoys and process multi-sensory input.

The Navy also has developed an Orion Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4) system to improve the aircraft’s ASW networking capabilities.

The improved Orions will be able to use Link-16 — which offers enhanced situational awareness and interoperability with U.S. Navy surface fleets, other military services and NATO forces — and an international maritime satellite from Inmarsat that provides encrypted broadband services for the fleet.

 

-aviationweek.com