Sounds like quite an advance over the P-3 Orion. Wonder how India's P-8I's will differ from the baseline? (from AW&ST):




Three P-8As Are On Production Line


Aviation Week & Space Technology Apr 13 , 2009 , p. 56
David A. Fulghum
Seattle



P-8A offers a whole new experience for pursuers and pursued alike



For veteran aircrews, the change from the long-serving turboprop P-3C Orion patrol aircraft to the new P-8A Poseidon turbofan is designed to be intuitive and seamless. But for those who won their wings on the P-3A of the 1960s, the change in mission profile, user-friendly equipment and advanced communications is stunning.

Starting with creature comforts, the bone-jarring, filling-loosening, rough-weather ride of the P-3—the product of short stiff wings—gives way to a far smoother, wing-flexing flight in the Boeing 737-derivative P-8A. Reducing physical stress and motion sickness among aircrews during long-endurance flights will decrease fatigue and increase the ability to handle complicated tactical problems. Considering the need for in-air refueling, room for a relief crew and a smaller fleet size compared with the P-3 force, the length of P-8A missions are sure to get even longer.

“You can react very quickly with this platform because you can go higher, farther, faster and stay on station longer,” says Tim Norgart, Boeing’s director of business development for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and intelligence, surveillence and reconnaisance (ISR) systems. “You can get data from UASs [like the land-launched, Broad Area Maritime Surveillance version of Global Hawk or sea-/air-launched Scan Eagle] to extend the P-8’s reach. [In fact,] you can tap into any [standard protocol]-compliant UAV in the world.”

Three P-8As are on Boeing’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations-compliant, third 737 production line. The single line is designed to produce P-8A, EP-X, export P-8 and civilian 737 airliners interchangeably. First flight for a test aircraft is set for second-quarter 2009. During 2009-10, three will be in the flight-test program that will last through 2011. The first unit is to be operational in 2013. Many specialists could support the P-8 and EP-X programs to leverage the $5-billion investment in the Poseidon if Boeing is selected for EP-X, says Bob Feldman, the company’s P-8 program manager.

“It is the first time ever that we have built an open systems architecture, and the first time we have built a commercial-derivative [military aircraft] using a commercial production line,” says Capt. Mike Moran, the Navy’s program manager for P-8 and EP-X. “We used to take a commercial airframe off the production line and send it to a chop shop to cut holes in it and beef it up. Turnaround time was about 36 months. With the P-8 we make changes on the line and build it in about 24 months.”

P-8A Increment 1 is the basic aircraft. The Navy is designing a software baseline that can be upgraded every 2-3 years. To support that, the aircraft has 50% extra electrical, cooling and computing power. There also is room for 12 tons of additional growth. Increment 2 has an ASW upgrade. At Milestone C, the program will demonstrate a network-ready capability for publish-and-subscribe data that can be pushed to a tactical control station. And there are hints about what might be in store technologically and operationally for future increments.

“This platform will be able to provide EW data,” says a long-time operational specialist. “[And] we have the kinetic weapons to complete the kill chain.”

A new radar will provide precision targeting. The P-3C has a new, mechanically scanned, Littoral Surveillance Radar System (LSRS). “We do not know yet what will follow,” Moran says. “We have been tasked to put provisions in the P-8 to host the next generation of LSRS. I do not know if it will be an AESA [active, electronically scanned array radar], but I do know the P-8 has the necessary weight, capacity, power [180 kva. plus 27,000 lb. of engine thrust] and cooling [for AESA, which can triple radar range over conventional radars].”

Boeing’s plans are for the P-8A to initially carry a mechanically scanned, 200-mi.-range, APY-10 radar without an air-to-air mode. However, it does provide navigation, surface search, periscope detection, ISAR, SAR and weather options. The Navy is looking at other technologies they want to eventually field in the aircraft in a fleet-wide update—Increment 2—two years after its operational debut. While the radar does not have cruise missile detection capability, it has the called-for frequency and antenna size for the mission if the proper software is developed.

Non-exploding weapons are also being studied by the military.

“Non-kinetic weapons are not part of the baseline requirement, but the P-8 has a digital weapons bus and a weapons bay the size of [that in] JSF [for which the Navy’s aerial weapons are designed] and can carry the J-series [jamming] weapons,” he says.

Boeing’s future concepts organization has already designed a reusable high-power microwave (HPM) package that fits in the weapons bay of an F-35 or N-UCAS. Moreover, the Air Armaments Center at Eglin AFB, Fla., is developing HPM warheads that fit the shape of current air-dropped weapons such as Joint Direct Attack Munition and cruise missiles. The Air Force also has accepted delivery of Raytheon’s first Miniature Air Launched Decoy that, in its J variant, “in concert with other electronic warfare assets, [will] shape the [EW] battlespace,” according to an Air Force document. The idea is that a small HPM device would be affixed to the 300-lb. MALD, which then flies very close to an enemy emitter, such as a radar antenna, and is triggered to produce a momentary spike of energy that can erase computer memory or damage electronic components.

Another P-8 feature admired by P-3 veterans is the Mission Computing and Display System (MCDS). It comes with secure interfaces, large processing capability and connectivity to all the sensors on the aircraft including electro-optical/infrared, synthetic aperture radar/inverse SAR and multi-static/passive-active acoustic sonobuoy data. That information is then integrated with the weapons data at every crew station on the aircraft.

“With a touch of the panel, you can bring up the software to access UAVs,” says Fred Smith, Boeing’s P-8A business development senior manager. “It will be an integral part of the MCDS. There are five crew positions with the capacity for a sixth that can be added later.”

The MCDS allows tactical coordinators (Taccos) and operators to overlay all that information—plus maps, information about electronic emitter types and positions and feeds from offboard sensors—on dual, high-resolution monitors at each position. There is also secure, dedicated Satcom for voice and data along with Imarsat, full Siprnet connectivity and Siprnet chat with the battle group. Not only will part of the combined operational picture be generated on board, it can be transmitted over-the-horizon or line-of-sight through UHF and VHF comms or common data link for real-time video.

“As a result, the P-8 will be a critical part of the C4I infrastructure,” Norgart says. “The vision is that the connectivity to all the other platforms—Growler, with which we share a common EW library, or UAVs, whose information we share with the battle group—is already there.

“The P-8 is going to provide a forward-deployed, flexible, scalable option for the national command authority,” Smith says. “It can be deployed where we don’t have a strike group. But you can put the eyes and ears of the fleet there. In peacetime, it can provide counter-terrorism, counter-drugs, anti-piracy, and counter-smuggling capabilities. In times of international tension it can provide surveillance of critical sea lines of communications anywhere in the world and it has weapons on board to complete the kill chain.”

The basic mission crew composition will be a Tacco who also serves as mission commander, perhaps a backup Tacco in place of a navigator and at least three operators. Some international customers plan to fly with an additional EW officer in the sixth position.

“The Navy [planners] will decide for each mission what [operator] expertise they put on,” Norgart says. “If it’s an ASW mission, they may go heavy on the acoustic [crewmen]. An overland ISR mission [heavily used in Afghanistan and Iraq] in support of the ground commander may focus on electronic warfare or EO/IR sensor operators.”