Initial P-8A Flight Begins Intensive Test Program

By Richard R. Burgess, Managing Editor

Only three minor discrepancies were noted on the first flight of the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, said Capt. Mike Moran, the Navy's program manager for maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft at the Sea-Air-Space Exposition May 5.

The first Boeing-built P-8A -- designated T-1 -- made a 3.5-hour flight from Renton, Wash., to Boeing Field in Seattle on April 25. The aircraft will begin an intensive test program in August.

The second P-8A, T-2, has been painted and will be the first mission-system test aircraft. T-2 will begin its flight testing in the second quarter of fiscal 2010. The third, T-3, also will be equipped with the mission and will be used for weapon-release testing.

"It's vitally important to keep this aircraft on schedule to recapitalize the P-3," Moran said, noting that the overworked P-3C fleet can field only 62 mission aircraft, leaving squadrons at home base with only one or two aircraft each for training.

Testing of the first of two static test airframes, S-1, begins this month and is scheduled to run through 2010. Assembly will begin on S-2 this summer, said Bob Feldman, Boeing's P-8 program manager.

The P-8 is scheduled to arrive at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. , in February or March 2010.

The Navy also announced today that the Australian government signed on as a partner in spiral development of the P-8A.

India is procuring eight P-8Is for its Navy. The Indian version will differ from the P-8A primarily in that it will be equipped with a magnetic anomaly detector and an aft-facing radar in addition to the nose-mounted radar.