21 ST CENTURY PARTNERSHIPSAIR POWER 2017 6721 ST CENTURY CAPABILITIESINTERVIEW
Simon Michell asks the
Commander of the United
States Naval Air Systems
Command, Vice Admiral
Paul A Grosklags, about the
enhanced capabilities that
the P-8A Poseidon offers
the United States Navy
and the impact the RAF is
having on the programme
“The P-8A provides more combat
capability and requires a smaller force
with less infrastructure to operate
than the P-3C Orion. It also delivers
an extended global reach, greater
payload capacity, higher operating
altitude, open systems architecture and
significant growth potential,” says Vice
Admiral Paul A Grosklags, Commander
of the United States Navy (USN) Naval
Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).
According to the Vice Admiral, the
P-8A Poseidon sustains and improves the
armed maritime and littoral intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities
for United States Naval forces in traditional,
joint and combined roles to counter
changing and emerging threats. Moreover,
it is equipped to complement unmanned
assets, and may be integrated – while also
providing fleet operators with the added
benefit of interfacing – with unmanned
aircraft systems when performing
certain operations and missions.
ADDITIONAL CAPABILITY
During 2016, the Maritime Patrol
Reconnaissance Aircraft Program Office
(PMA-290) remained focused on P-8A
aircraft production, deliveries and site
primary maritime anti-ship weapon, the
AGM-84 Harpoon missile, is used by
many nations. The P-8A’s sonobuoys,
used for submarine detection and tracking,
are also used by many allied maritime
patrol aircraft. And, in terms of
maintenance, the P-8A also leverages
common commercial interfaces for
aircraft servicing and support.”
When asked about the contribution
that the United Kingdom is making to the
programme, Vice Admiral Grosklags
replies, “The Royal Air Force is making
a significant impact on the overall P-8
programme. In the short term, the UK
procurement helped achieve significant
production economies of scale for both
itself and other countries. In the longer
term, the UK decision to procure and
field the P-8A capability maximises
interoperability via commonality,
and cements a continued long-term
relationship in maritime surveillance
between the US and UK, both in
acquisition and operations.”stand-up in support of fleet transition.
That said, the current programme focus
also includes procurement of depot and
intermediate-level maintenance capabilities,
full-scale fatigue testing, and continued
integration and fleet delivery of pre-
planned incremental capability upgrades.
Vice Admiral Grosklags elaborates:
“The first upgrade under P-8A Increment
2 (Inc 2) added a broad-area, multi-
static acoustic anti-submarine warfare
(ASW) capability to the aircraft. This
capability, referred to as Multi-Static
Active Coherent (MAC), significantly
increases the P-8A’s ASW search rate in
littoral environments. MAC completed
Follow-on Test and Evaluation in April
2015 and has been delivered to the fleet.”
Furthermore, the capability is
scheduled to receive periodic future
enhancements in order to keep pace
with the ASW threat. The Vice Admiral
also revealed that the USN is on track
to field additional Inc 2 MAC and High
Altitude ASW Sensor capability this
year, followed by a High Altitude ASW
Weapon capability as part of the P-8A’s
ongoing incremental upgrade strategy.THE P-8 PARTNERSHIP
The P-8A is designed (and has proven to
be) interoperable with the maritime air
and surface units of allied and friendly
nations. The aircraft incorporates the
most current common voice and tactical
data communications links such as
Link-16 and Common Data Link (CDL) to
achieve operational connectivity among
coalition forces. Additionally, it retains the
legacy Link 11 tactical data link specifically
for use with allied and friendly forces that
are still in the process of transitioning
to Link 16 and CDL.
In terms of the combat systems, Vice
Admiral Grosklags explains, “The P-8A’sVICE ADMIRAL PAUL A GROSKLAGS
Commander Naval Air Systems Command
Vice Admiral Paul A Grosklags says
the RAF is making a significant impact
on the overall P-8 programme