POSEIDON THE SUB HUNTER

摘要

The US Navy's maritime surveillance aircraft, the P-8A Poseidon, can not only detect and track enemy submarines, but chase them down and destroy them, too. Mark Ayton takes a closer look. THE FIRST P-8A Poseidon delivered to the US Navy fleet arrived at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida, in March 2012. That aircraft was assigned to Patrol Squadron 30 (VP-30) 'Pro's Nest'. As the Fleet Replacement Squadron, VP-30 has responsibility for training all P-8 aviators and mission crew, not just from the US Navy but also Foreign Military Sale (FMS) customers such as the UK, Australia, and Norway. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) is the contracting authority for all P-8A Poseidons, which are managed by PMA-290, the Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft program office based at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. One of its tasks is to ensure all allied P-8As share the same baseline configuration as the US Navy's aircraft Commonality of FMS aircraft enables interoperability and allows all aircraft to undergo forward fit of sub-systems on the assembly lines, which are run by Boeing Commercial Airplanes at Renton and Boeing Defense Systems at King County Airport, both near Seattle, Washington.