U.S. Navy’s newest maritime aircraft dubbed ‘P-8A Poseidon’

P-8A program management was notified last week by the U.S. Air Force that what was once known as the Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft, or MMA, will now be known only as the P-8A Poseidon. Although the P-8A is a Navy aircraft, the Department of Defense executive agency responsible for designating and naming all aerospace vehicles is the U.S. Air Force.

(Editor's comment: Pity the poor P-8 Poseidon patrol plane pilot who stutters. What a p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-pisser!)

An interesting interview with RADM Michael Holmes from Seapower Magazine, August 2005.

Note the blue and red highlighted portions, but especially the red. Sound familiar? Bomb the buoy!!!!

Holmes juggles new missions and demands with smaller, more disperse maritime patrol and reconnaissance forces

Over the last decade, the Navy’s maritime patrol and reconnaissance (MPR) forces have flown missions never before envisioned for them, including firing long-range cruise missiles at land targets and spying on insurgents in the mountains of Afghanistan and the cities of Iraq. The demands of the global war on terrorism have stretched the already widely dispersed force further even as its force level declines and it struggles to sustain a shrinking and aging aircraft fleet.

As commander, Patrol & Reconnaissance Group, Rear Adm. Michael L. Holmes is responsible to the commander, Naval Air Forces, for manning, training and equipping the MPR force of 17 patrol, special projects patrol and fleet air reconnaissance squadrons.

Holmes brought to the job extensive experience as a P-3 Orion patrol plane pilot, with eight tours of duty in U.S. and Canadian patrol squadrons, commanding two of them. He later commanded U.S. and allied MPR forces in the Mediterranean, and subsequently the MPR forces of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Holmes has introduced several initiatives to increase the capabilities of the MPR force, including integration of reserve crews to eventually allow corresponding reduction of some active-duty fliers. He discussed this and other initiatives for the MPR forces with Seapower Managing Editor Richard R. Burgess.

What challenges does the maritime patrol and reconnaissance community face today?

HOLMES: The challenge today is sustaining the airplanes until their replacements come along. The P-3 is the oldest fixed-wing platform flying today. The average life of the P-3 force is 27 years; some are 40 years old. Few of the operators on those airplanes are that old. We’re now at a point in time in the life span of naval aviation when the average age of the airplanes is older than the average age of [the Navy’s] ships. We’re going to have to fly [the P-3] for another 12-15 years. The environment that we put this airplane in — down low, a couple hundred feet over the ocean and its salt environment — has really taken its toll. We have some serious fatigue issues that we are addressing today. The EP-3s (electronic reconnaissance aircraft) are getting old, and we are going to replace them about the same time as the P-3. The high altitude we put the EP-3 in is not as harsh as the salt environment of the P-3s’ ASW (antisubmarine warfare) missions, so I am not quite as concerned about [the EP-3 fleet], plus we’re taking old P-3s and refurbishing them and turning them into EP-3s.

HOLMES: When I came into this job in September 2003, there were 227 P-3Cs in the Navy inventory. Lockheed Martin conducted a service-life assessment program on a P-3, and we looked at the results. Within a year we had retired 50 P-3s. Out of the remainder, we’ve had to put those through structural modifications. Counting the airplanes going through those modifications and the ones in phased depot maintenance, we’ve got about 46 percent of our inventory in some kind of deep maintenance. Consequently, there are not a lot of airplanes left on the ramp for the nine squadrons at home [plus the fleet readiness squadron and six reserve squadrons] to train with. It’s common for a squadron coming off deployment to have only two airplanes to train with. So we’ve pooled our assets at each wing, including reserve assets. We had to, in order to meet the forward-deployment requirements. We have a lot of money invested in [structural modification programs], including omnibus contracts that combine all of the required structural work and new systems installations so that an airplane comes in only once and gets back to the fleet as soon as possible. I’m hoping that a year from now a squadron at home will have five airplanes on the ramp.

HOLMES: We are able to meet the combatant commanders’ most immediate and pressing needs today. Every combatant commander with P-3s in their AOR (area of responsibility) would ask for more. When [I was a] lieutenant, we would deploy eight P-3 squadrons, each with nine airplanes, at eight different deployment sites, for a total of 72 P-3s at any given time. Today, we are down to three deployment sites [Sigonella, Italy; Bahrain; and Misawa, Japan], using three squadrons at eight airplanes each, a total of 24 planes. That’s a number that we are able to sustain. About a year ago, the P-3 was designated an LDHD (low-density, high-demand) asset because of the limited number we have. [The Fleet Response Plan] dictated quite a few changes to the MPR community. We now have East Coast squadrons deploying to West Coast deployment sites and vice versa. I think all of the crews should be exposed to as many of the areas we operate in as possible.

HOLMES: We are. The primary missions that we fly from our deployed sites are generally in support of OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom) and OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom). So we fly daily over Iraq as well as Afghanistan, flying out of Bahrain. We work very closely with the land forces component commander and his forces, the Army and the Marine Corps. They’d tell you that the P-3 is providing a vital part of their support and enabling them to get the job done. We provide the platform overhead with its electro-optical and infrared capability and the ability to see situational awareness on the ground — and to be able to pass that situational awareness to the forces on the ground. We typically fly with a Marine rider on board who knows his personnel and is passing on the information that the airplane is collecting.

HOLMES: ASW has always been our core mission. The other missions sets that come with that — ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) and [maritime] interdiction — if you’re doing ASW and using all of your sensors, then the overland ISR become fairly easy to adjust to. When our crews are home in the training cycle they focus on ASW. Unfortunately, their focus when forward-deployed has been on ISR, so there hasn’t been a lot of ASW readiness generated on deployment. Since the CNO (chief of naval operations) has put new emphasis back into ASW, we have worked with the task force commanders to get as many ASW exercises [as we can] for our forward-deployed squadrons in order to keep their ASW readiness as high as possible. That’s not easy in a place like the [Persian] Gulf.

HOLMES: In the Cold War, it was deepwater ASW, fairly easy against a loud target whose destination was usually predictable. Today, that’s changed a bit. We typically don’t see any nation putting submarines in an out-of-area deployment scenario like we did in the Cold War, so we don’t have the advantage of taking a close look at any particular nation’s submarines. We train with [foreign] diesel submarines — Chilean, Canadian, Australian, German — to get as much diesel time as possible. We think the toughest nut to crack for ASW is modern-technology, quiet diesel submarines operating on batteries or air-independent propulsion in the littoral environment.

What are you doing with crew training to reduce stress on the aircraft inventory?

HOLMES: We’re buying a new simulator that’s going to take a lot of the pilot training out of the airplane and put it in a simulator that’s state-of-the-art and allows the pilot to have the same feel, look, smell of an airplane. To train the back-end crews, we’re using our WSTs (Weapon System Trainers) to their maximum capacity in order not to use the airplanes for that function. I have reduced the number of pilots in each squadron, a conscious effort to go down to 30 pilots, down from 36 per squadron. Fewer pilots mean fewer landings on the airplanes and fewer requirements to train people. That’s going to save quite a bit. Pilot training is really where you get the most wear and tear.

What is the advantage of consolidating the two EP-3 squadrons next month at Whidbey Island, Wash.?

HOLMES: Just being co-located, the synergy from the training perspective is going to be great, because Whidbey is the electronic warfare training center of the Navy with the EP-3s and EA-6Bs there. Certainly there will be some consolidation in intermediate maintenance. We’ll be able to close the base at Rota, Spain, and free up a considerable number of billets. Once we get consolidated, we’ll be able to look within the squadrons and find some further consolidations. We may be able to share administrative departments. The aircraft may be pooled, if it makes sense money-wise, and I think it probably will.

HOLMES: It will bring the reserve closer to the active force than it has been in the past. As an example, we assigned four reserve crews to go through training with Patrol Squadron 45 (VP-45), and those crews have been flying over Iraq, doing the same job as the VP-45 crews. I see an opportunity to reduce the number of active-duty crews. Once we develop a cadre of 12 VP reserve crews whose readiness is to the level I need, I’m going to reduce the active-duty force by an equivalent number.

HOLMES: We’re excited about getting the Mk54 lightweight torpedo [in fiscal 2007]. OPNAV (the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations) is trying to find the money to fund a high-altitude torpedo to drop from 20,000 feet. We need to be able to do ASW from up high. The P-8A Multimission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) is very efficient at high altitudes. Envision sonobuoys with GPS (Global Positioning System) in them that know exactly where they’re at. If you have contact on a submarine on a GPS sonobuoy, you know where that submarine is. If we can provide some guidance to a torpedo as it heads to a sonobuoy, we can do it more quickly, efficiently, effectively, with pinpoint accuracy. No longer would we have to mark on top (fly over) sonobuoys constantly at 20,000 feet, which is not pinpoint accuracy to be able to drop a torpedo on a sub. It will save us a lot of gas, and translate to speed and accuracy. We used to hunt submarines with all passive sensors, but that’s not going to cut it with today’s quieting technology. With today’s diesel submarine, you’re going to have to go active. We have been very aggressive with Extended Echo Ranging (EER, a sonobuoy with an explosive charge). I’ve seen a dramatic improvement in our ability over the past year and a half. Down the road, we [will] have Improved EER, which will allow us to monitor more sonobuoys and allow us to [discern] more false targets. Another improvement, Active EER, will produce an electronic ping from a sonobuoy so instead of having one charge we’re going to be able to have multiple pings.

HOLMES: The P-8A MMA is fully funded. We’re really excited about that airplane coming on line in 2013. It can’t come a minute too soon, given the problems we’ve got with the old P-3. I don’t envision sustaining 12 active patrol squadrons when we go to MMA, it will be some number less than that. The Aerial Common Sensor platform will replace the EP-3. The BAMS (Broad-Area Maritime Surveillance) UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) is going to play a big part in what [the MPR] community does in the future. The majority of the ISR that we’re picking up with the P-3 and the EP-3 can be transitioned to [a UAV]. But you can’t relegate ASW to an unmanned aerial vehicle, it’s too dynamic and manpower-intensive. You have to be able to make decisions relative to an enemy submarine rather quickly.

The Boeing P-8A will fill the Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft role for the U.S. Navy, replacing the Lockheed P-3 Orion.

An armed version of Boeing’s 737-800 series, the P-8 will begin flight testing at Patuxent River NAS MD in 2008, with the first fleet deployment expected in 2013.

Over time, the Navy’s once large inventory of P-3s has been reduced to fewer than 200. Current plans call for the procurement of 108 P-8s, which will be supported by civilian contract maintenance and mission-complemented by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) being developed under the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance program. A name has yet to be selected for the P-8, although rumor has it that Poseidon has been “floated” for consideration. If chosen, the name alone will no doubt discourage stutterers from applying to become P-8 Poseidon patrol plane pilots.

From:       Buclatin, Ed D CDR COMNAVAIRPAC
Sent:        Friday, April 01, 2005 11:57
Subject:   4/1 NAVAIR Press Release: MMA is designated P-8A

Subject:    MMA is designated P-8A
Date:        01-Apr-05

News Release Number: E200504011
News Release Copy:      By Renee Hatcher
MMA Public Affairs

The Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft received its mission design series designation on March 30. MMA will now be identified as P-8A. The P-8A MMA is the Navy's replacement platform for the P-3C Orion, securing the Navy's future in long-range patrol.

The primary mission of MMA is to provide persistent Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW). In addition, MMA will contribute to Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW) and Intelligence,
Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) warfighting capabilities as defined in the Sea Shield and FORCEnet elements of the Navy's Sea Power 21.

The U.S. Air Force is the Department of Defense executive agent for designating and naming aerospace vehicles. The popular name that will follow the P-8A series designation has been submitted for approval. NAVAIR's Maritime Surveillance Aircraft Program Office in Patuxent River, Maryland administers the P-8A MMA Program. NAVAIR is working closely with the Boeing Company as an integrated product team. The program is currently in the System Design and Development phase. Initial operating capability is scheduled for 2013 with full operational capability planned for 2019.

For more information, call Renee Hatcher at 301-342-0207.

To view the complete news release on the web (after it is posted) please click on the below referenced URL or copy and paste it into your Web Browser:
http://pao.navair.navy.mil/press_releases/index.cfm?fuseaction=press_rele
ase_view&press_release_id=3157&site_id=23

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy on Monday bypassed incumbent Lockheed Martin Corp. to award Boeing Co. a $3.9 billion deal to develop a replacement for the Navy's fleet of submarine-hunting P-3 aircraft.

Navy acquisitions chief John Young said the new Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft, or MMA, would transform how the Navy carried out maritime reconnaissance and surveillance missions, ensuring a sustained forward presence, sea domination and network intelligence capability.

Boeing yesterday won a huge defense contract that will add 1,200 mostly engineering jobs in the Puget Sound region over the next two years.

The contract is for the Navy's next generation of anti-submarine aircraft, known as Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA).

The contract, worth nearly $4 billion initially, but potentially 10 times that amount over 25 years, will have a big impact on the commercial side of the business, too. It means an order for as many as 300 of Boeing's 737 jets that are assembled in Renton.

The contract almost guarantees that Boeing will continue making airplanes in Renton for the next two decades, 10 years beyond what had been expected.

The commercial and military sides of the company came together to compete with Lockheed Martin to design and build the planes.

About 100 employees working on the program gathered yesterday in a company cafeteria in Kent to see the announcement live over a video link, a spokesman said. They cheered when Assistant Navy Secretary John Young announced that Boeing had won.

The winning MMA proposal is a militarized version of the 737 commercial airliner. The standard airframe will be modified and hardened to carry 12,500 pounds of missiles, torpedoes, depth bombs and sonic buoys and a fuselage full of sophisticated sensor and computer data systems.

Jim Albaugh, CEO of the Integrated Defense Systems division of Boeing, admitted that company officials weren't sure whether Boeing's damaged reputation would hurt its chances of winning the MMA contract.

Boeing lost some lucrative rocket contracts after the Pentagon found that company employees had stolen documents from rival Lockheed in the late 1990s. And last year, the company's chief financial officer, Mike Sears, was fired after he offered a job to an Air Force procurement officer working on the 767 tanker plan.

But the shadow of those scandals seemed to disappear after yesterday's announcement.

Albaugh touted the MMA win as a sign that the defense and commercial sides of the company, merged in 1997 when Boeing absorbed McDonnell Douglas, have come together successfully.

"Without the power of bringing all these heritage companies together, we wouldn't have had this win," Albaugh said.

Carolyn Corvi, head of the Renton plant, said that partnering with the defense side of the business was a great experience.

"One of the reasons we brought these companies together was to minimize the effects of commercial airplane cycles in our business," Corvi told a news conference in Kent.

Boeing won the contract with a radical plan to integrate this military program with its commercial operation in a way that's never been done before.

Instead of producing a commercial jet and flying it to the military modification center in Wichita for conversion, the militarized versions of the planes will be produced on the initial production lines in Wichita and Renton.

The 737 fuselage will be built in Wichita and sent by train to Renton, where it will be joined to the wings, and systems installed and assembly completed.

When production gets going, 12 to 18 militarized 737s a year will come off the Renton line between regular commercial versions of the jet. An internal study showed that building the military version of the airplane on the initial production line would save money and cut a year off the development program.

The time and cost savings and the reliability of the 737 sold the Navy on Boeing's jet.

The initial development phase of the contract, which will produce seven planes, is worth $3.9 billion. An order for 109 production aircraft will follow, and international orders are expected to bump that number up to 300 jets.

"That extends the life of the [737] clearly out a couple of decades from now," she said.

Until yesterday, Corvi had routinely said Boeing would stay in Renton for the foreseeable future, which she had indicated was about seven years out. Last month, a report in a trade magazine had suggested Boeing might wind down 737 production in 2013.

"We always said 'the foreseeable future,' because you never knew exactly when it was," Corvi said. "Now we are getting closer to defining it."

The Navy orders have an estimated value of $15 billion over a 10-year production run. With spares, support and international orders, that could soar to more than $40 billion over 25 years, said Young.

At the Kent news conference, MMA program manager Jack Zerr said his team was "looking forward to a little hooting and hollering tonight," and described the MMA program as "pulling together the best of Boeing and the best of the industry."

Boeing will partner on the program with Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and Smiths Aerospace. CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and Snecma of France, produces the 737 engines.

Most of the 1,200 new local jobs will be in a new MMA building in Renton, close to the 737 assembly plant, where the staff will work on the structural engineering design of the airframe.

Jobs also will be added in Kent, where Boeing will set up labs to integrate and test the sensor and data systems for the aircraft, Zerr said. These will be largely software and computer hardware jobs.

A smaller unit will work at Boeing Field, where military avionics and weapons systems will be added to the planes.

The MMA program also means about 400 more jobs will be added in St. Louis and in Patuxent River, Md., for a total of 1,600 jobs companywide.

The Navy picked Boeing's jet over an updated version of the Lockheed P-3 turboprops that currently fly the missions. The aircraft sweep the oceans for threats to the Navy's fleet and fly intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance missions around the world.

Boeing's MMA planes will fly low over the ocean, crisscrossing for hours and using electronic and sonic sensors to search for signals. They will have nine-member crews.

During the Cold War, P-3s tracked Soviet nuclear subs. Today, the Navy needs to protect its surface ships, including huge aircraft carriers, from the threat posed by older, low-tech diesel-electric submarines, which make no noise when the engines are switched off and are thus harder to detect than nuclear subs. More than 40 nations have older subs.

Boeing said it believes the MMA aircraft also could play a role in homeland defense.

BIDS TO REPLACE THE U.S. NAVY'S AGING P-3C AIRCRAFT ARE IN

FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, May 11

The U. S. Navy will soon award a $2.25 billion contract to develop its Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA), the long-awaited replacement for the submarine-hunting Lockheed Martin P-3C Orion. With an unlikely face-off between Lockheed Martin's Orion 21 turboprop and Boeing's 737-based jet, the selection could depend as much on the service's operational philosophy as on pricing and technical details.

The proposal of the Boeing team is based on a militarized derivative of its 737-800, which borrows the wing from the larger 737-900, and introduces a weapons bay in the aft cargo hold and wing-mounted weapons stations. Raytheon would supply the APS-137 maritime surveillance radar, Northrop Grumman the data-links and electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor and Smiths Aerospace would provide flight management and stores management systems.

Having once considered a bid based on the Airbus A320 family, the Lockheed Martin team has instead settled on an improved version of the P-3 called the Orion 21. The winning team has less than six years to begin flying the new aircraft, and less than nine years to deliver enough of them for the Navy's initial operational capability in 2012. The first aircraft will arrive as most P-3Cs are scheduled to be phased out of service.

Key operating criteria outlined in the MMA solicitation ask for relatively marginal improvements over the P-3C in speed, altitude and range. The desired 90-percent reliability rate, while higher than the 58-percent availability rate of the ageing P-3Cs, seems modest compared with commercial standards.

The MMA's mission systems are not required to improve on the reconnaissance capability of the current fleet, although the baseline architecture must allow easy insertion of new technology and hardware. The MMA's sensor suite must include an EO/IR imager, a synthetic aperture radar, acoustic processor and an electronic threat warning system.

And what about the P-3's replacement? This from Jim McGroarty:

"My company (Raytheon) is heavily involved with Boeing et. al. on the replacement for the P-3/EP-3 called Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA). At our facility in Indy we do the systems design, integration and testing on the EP-3E mission system."

(ICE = U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; AMO = Office of Air & Marine Ops); "Slick" = Customs chase plane - no radome.)

Aug 3 1970: ZE-06, Buno 152159, and all hands aboard lost in crash over Nevada (see story on Bulletin Board page).

18 May 1972: ZE-6, Buno 152167, flown from Cubi Pt to Naha to rejoin the squadron after a rare six-week patch procedure to repair a corrosion crack in the main spar of the left wing. The spar of a P-3 wing is basically a big aluminum I-beam which is attached on a dihedral to a similar horizontal I-beam that runs straight through the fuselage. The attachment is a large aluminum plate bolted across the abutment of the horizontal and dihedral sections, essentially a splice that holds the wing on. On ZE-6, a corrosion crack developed in the lower half of this splice on the left wing. The fix was to cut the splice in half horizontally, manufacture a new lower half, bolt that in place and then add a smaller splice across the two pieces of the main splice. Thus, the wing was now connected to the aircraft by a splice that was considerably smaller than the original. Having watched these pieces get bolted in place in Cubi before test flying ZE-06 to ensure the left wing would actually stay on and then flying it back to Naha, I was especially relieved when the squadron finally got rid of 152167 in the spring of '73 and Buno 152168 took its place as ZE-6. However, 152168 was not new to the squadron. It had flown with us for some time as ZE something else (ZE-4 perhaps?) before being repainted and reborn as ZE-6. My log book shows that I flew both 167 and 168 in Feb 1972, when I joined the squadron in Naha, and last flew 167 in March 1973 shortly before we deployed to Cubi. Ger

13 May 1975: ZE-6, Buno 152168, hit by ground fire while participating in the Mayaguez operation. Follow the link next to the above photo to read this story.

NAVAIR recorded another first in naval aviation history when a P-3C Orion launched, took control of, and recovered a Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff Unmanned Aerial Vehicle during a 45-minute technical demonstration Dec. 19 at NAVAIR Webster Field in St. Inigoes, Md.

The Aircraft Improvement Program (AIP) P-3C demonstrated the highest level of control, level 5, by controlling the launch and recovery of Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout, and controlling both the air vehicle and its sensor payload while airborne. The AIP aircraft took off from Patuxent River with an integrated Tactical Control System (TCS) installed that allowed the aircraft to control the airborne Fire Scout.

This was a first for the Navy. The TCS developed by Raytheon Corporation and the Tactical Common Data Link (TCDL) developed by L-3 Communication Systems-West were integrated aboard the P-3C AIP aircraft by the prime systems integrator, Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors-Tactical Systems Eagan.

The improvements to the P-3C give it the ability to execute its Over The Horizon-Targeting mission more effectively and increase its survivability in a hostile environment while retaining the ability to conduct other missions. “Through its airborne control of the UAV platform and sensors, the P-3 AIP will be able to greatly expand its support to carrier strike groups and ground forces,” said Capt. Steve Eastburg, NAVAIR’s Maritime Surveillance Aircraft (PMA-290) Program Manager. “This capability will also improve platform survivability, decrease the targeting timeline, improve situational awareness and post-strike battle damage assessment, and provide a communication relay role for battle group assets.”

The demonstration began when the P-3C AIP aircraft took off from Patuxent River and launched Fire Scout from Webster Field using TCS. The AIP aircraft controlled the air vehicle and sensor payload via the TCS and vectored the Fire Scout to a simulated target, a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, on the St. Mary’s River. The Fire Scout fed streaming electro-optical video via TCDL to the P-3C during the demonstration. The P-3C then relayed the motion video from the Fire Scout, along with motion video gathered from the P-3C's onboard electro-optical sensor, to a ground station at Webster Field. This relay of Fire Scout sensor data to a ground station demonstrated the network centric concept of making Fire Scout sensor data available (by rebroadcast) to a ground station that is not in direct communications link with the Fire Scout.

The demonstration concluded when the AIP aircraft successfully recovered and landed the Fire Scout at Webster Field. It was a proof-of-concept and risk mitigation exercise for the adjunct UAV command and control requirement associated with the next generation maritime surveillance aircraft, the Multimission Maritime Aircraft. PMA-290 and NAVAIR’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Program Office (PMA-263) jointly sponsored the technical demonstration. The two program offices have been working as a single P-3C AIP-Fire Scout Demonstration Team since October 2002 to demonstrate the successful integration of TCS and TCDL aboard the P-3C AIP aircraft to enable the control of Fire Scout and its sensor capabilities. “As the centerpiece of the Navy's UAV architecture, the Tactical Control System was demonstrated at its best today, successfully providing the highest level of UAV control, from an in-flight aircraft,” said Capt. Dennis Sorensen, program manager for NAVAIR’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (PMA-263). “Today's event paves the way for future system interfaces and connectivity that are vital to 21^st century operational effectiveness.”

The article above was forwarded by Jon Dresel on 3/11/04. Jon adds the following:

Am now working on demonstrating a small expendable sono-launched UAV with a small EO/IR sensor.

By the way, the P-3 and follow-on Multi-mission Maritime Acft (MMA) primary mission has again returned to ASW, vice anti-surface warfare.

Lockheed Martin Delivers 64th AIP P-3C Aircraft

(Source: Lockheed Martin; issued March 24, 2005)

EAGAN, Minn. --- Lockheed Martin has delivered the 64th P-3C aircraft
modified under the Anti-Surface Warfare Improvement Program (AIP) to the
U.S. Navy. Lockheed Martin will update a total of five P-3C aircraft in
2005.

The AIP upgrades draw on the latest commercial-off-the-shelf and
non-developmental technology to provide the next generation of mission
capability for the U.S. Navy P-3C. Lockheed Martin has been the prime
contractor and systems integrator since 1994 for the aircraft's
avionics, including non-acoustic sensors, communications, survivability
and displays and controls.

New workstations, satellite communication capabilities, and enhanced
radar, optical and infrared (IR) sensors significantly increase the
aircraft's surveillance role. The capabilities provided have enabled the
aircraft to be used extensively in all major U.S. combined forces
operations, including those in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia, and
others associated with the global war on terrorism.

"We are proud to continue providing these critical updates to the Navy,"

said Richard F. Ambrose, president of Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems &
Sensors' Tactical Systems line of business. "The P-3 aircraft are an
integral part of our nation's defense systems, and our upgrades provide
enhanced capabilities that expand their role in both humanitarian and
military operations."

The P-3 is the primary maritime surveillance aircraft operated by the
Navy and 15 international allies. Its roles include anti-submarine
warfare; anti-surface warfare; command, control communications,
computers and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance; search and
rescue; drug interdiction; and exclusive economic zone protection.

Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed Martin employs about 130,000
people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design,
development, manufacture and integration of advanced technology systems,
products and services.

Since getting back in the P-3 business at NAVAIR, hard to believe the changes that have occurred regarding the missions and sensors. About half of all squadron aircraft are now configured as P-3C Anti-Surface Warfare Improvement Program (AIP) aircraft that is the follow-on to the P-3C Update III. The ASW mission is being challenged by the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission. Not only is the P-3 used for blue water and littoral missions, but now over land as well, if the threat level allows.

AIP sensors include:

- ASX-4 Advanced Imaging Multis-pectral Sensor (AIMS) that includes an Electro-Optical and IR imaging capability--used extensively in Afghanistan and Iraq
- APS-137 Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR)/Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR)--radar contact displayed as an image for afloat and stationery land targets (sure beats the old APS-80 blotches)
- ALR-66B Automated SS-3 ESM suite called Specific Emitter Identification (SEI)--remember what a warm and fuzzy feeling we got from the crack SSp3 expertise with the ALD-2B
- Color High Resolution Displays--like watching colored TV (nothing like the old ASA-16)
- Over-the-Horizon Airborne Sensor Integration System (OASIS)--entirely new sitcom communications system.
- ALE-47 Countermeasures Dispensing System--flares to thwart Air-to-Surface missiles
- AAR-47 Missile Warning System
- Explosive Suppressant Foam around wing tanks
- Standoff Land Attack Missile-Enhanced Response (SLAM-ER) replacing the Harpoon and Maverick missiles--can update the target data after missile is launched

Jon

MANILA, Philippines - The U.S. military has deployed Orion P3 surveillance planes to scour Philippine jungles for al-Qaida linked guerrillas who pose a threat to American counterterrorism trainers, the Philippine air force said Monday.

Deployment of the long-range spy planes, at least two of which are stationed at a central Philippine air base, started two weeks ago with regular surveillance flights over the southern island of Mindanao as part of a stronger security shield for U.S. forces there, air force spokesman Maj. Restituto Padilla said.

The Orions are manned by U.S. Navy personnel and will remain in the country indefinitely, Padilla told The Associated Press. They were able to deploy only recently, after American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan eased, he said.

The U.S. Embassy, closed for a holiday Monday, was not immediately available for comment.

"They're providing a security coverage for the American forces. They provide surveillance and intelligence data about pirates and the Abu Sayyaf groups operating in areas with known terrorist presence," Padilla said.

The al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf has gained international notoriety for kidnapping foreigners and beheading some captives. Considered by Washington as a terrorist group, it has been the object of on-and-off U.S.-backed military assaults in Mindanao.

More than 1,000 American soldiers last year trained and armed Filipino troops battling Abu Sayyaf guerrillas on Basilan, crippling and driving the rebels away from the southern island in a period during which Orion P3 planes were deployed in Mindanao for the first time.

Smaller U.S. counterterrorism training, involving about 300 Americans at any time, has continued throughout the year in the southern port city of Zamboanga, headquarters of the Philippine military's Southern Command.

Padilla said the U.S. planes were not being used to assist Philippine military operations against the Abu Sayyaf and other insurgents, but it was not impossible for Filipino officials to request surveillance data to bolster their counterterrorist strikes.

Earlier this year, the Philippines asked the U.S. military to use the Orions for surveillance over Mindanao to help Filipino troops in a massive hunt for Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khaddafy Janjalani, military sources have told AP.

The Philippines also sought U.S. surveillance flights over Mindanao in recent months to help search for an Indonesian terror fugitive, Fathur Roman Al-Ghozi, who was killed in a shootout Sunday.

The United States has been working closely with Manila on modernizing the 113,000-strong Philippine military, whose air force consists of about 30 Vietnam War-era Huey helicopters and other aging aircraft.

Many civil groups are critical of Washington's active counterterrorism role in the former U.S. colony.