Air Power 2017

70 AIR POWER 2017

21 ST CENTURY CAPABILITIES

21 ST CENTURY PARTNERSHIPS

very perishable if not exercised. With keen foresight,
the UK recognised this fact and established a non-
reciprocal personnel exchange programme with
the US Navy, whereby experienced aircrew were
assigned to our MPRA test-and-training squadrons
to ensure that their ASW skills remained sharp.

VALUABLE EXPERIENCE
These 20-plus RAF Project Seedcorn personnel
have been instrumental in testing the new USN
P-8A Poseidon multi-mission aircraft and training
US crews to fly it. Bringing years of experience flying
a large, swept-wing jet aircraft, these airmen were
uniquely qualified to help the US Navy transition from
a 50-or-more-year-old turbo-prop in the case of the
P-3C Orion to the state-of-the-art P-8A Poseidon.
We have benefitted from the RAF’s contribution
to our fleet-replacement squadron (FRS), both as
instructors to our new and returning aviators and
as experienced ASW, anti-surface warfare (ASUW)
and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
(ISR) operators who bring a complementary
perspective to our MPRA fleet personnel.
The RAF’s ASW experience and perspective on
interoperability helps ensure the USN recaptures the
expertise in a maritime environment that eroded
during the previous two decades where operational
demand drove operations overland, providing ISR
products to land component commanders. From our
point of view, this relatively small initiative has paid
enormous dividends to both the RAF and the USN that

will prove to be invaluable as we operate together

in the future. I have no doubt that we were better

prepared to introduce and employ this awesome

platform as a result of the efforts and assistance of our

UK brothers in arms. It is now time for the UK to reap

the benefits of its very successful Seedcorn programme

as it awaits the arrival of the first UK P-8A in 2019.

The core competencies that fleet commanders

expect and demand from our Maritime Patrol and

Reconnaissance Force (MPRF) are ASW, ASUW and ISR:

• ASW provider. The Maritime Patrol Community
  (VP squadrons) will retire its last P-3C in the
  October 2019 timeframe, when the P-8A
  platform will shoulder the full burden of
  providing airborne maritime warfighting
  capability to the combatant commanders in
  forward theatres. The P-8A Poseidon brings
  increased processing capacity and capability
  to the table, including improved multi-static
  active coherent (MAC) sensors and improved
  passive acoustics, more robust electro-optics
  and electronic support hardware, and high-

Anti-submarine warfare is a skill

set that is difficult to acquire and

very perishable if not exercised

RAF crew track a

submarine during

Fleet Challenge

2014, an annual

anti-submarine

warfare competition

(PHOTO: US NAVY MASS

COMMUNICATION

SPECIALIST 3RD CLASS

JASON KOFONOW)