Boeing selects Bombardier business jet for maritime surveillance aircraft program

By BA Staff

Boeing has selected Bombardier's Challenger 605 business jet as the platform for its Maritime Surveillance Aircraft (MSA) program.

Tim Peters, Boeing vice president and general manager, Mobility, Surveillance and Engagement, said at the Dubai Airshow:

"The Challenger 605 is an ideal platform to host MSA's mission system, sensors and communications equipment. It also provides the power, payload capacity, range, speed and endurance that our customers tell us they need for missions such as anti-piracy; coastal and border security; and long-range search and rescue."

Boeing team-mate Field Aviation will modify the Challenger 605's structure and air vehicle systems into the MSA configuration.

Peters said:

"Field Aviation has extensive experience engineering and modifying the Challenger family of aircraft for a variety of missions, including maritime surveillance."

Field Aviation is currently modifying a Boeing-owned Challenger 604 jet into an MSA demonstrator aircraft that will complete ground and flight testing of the mission systems and be presented to potential customers in 2014.

MSA incorporates technologies developed for the P-8A Poseidon, the U.S. Navy’s newest anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance system based on the Boeing Next-Generation 737 commercial airplane.  

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Aviation Week honors Boeing programs for excellence

By BA Staff

The Boeing P-8A Poseidon program and F-15 logistics program were recognized for their success at Aviation Week & Space Technology's Program Excellence award ceremony held Nov. 14 in Phoenix.

The P-8A maritime surveillance aircraft program won the System Level Production category, while the F-15 fighter jet Radar Contractor Logistics Support (CLS) Performance-Based Logistics (PBL) program was a finalist in the Sub-System Sustainment category.

Aviation Week's awards recognize management, leadership, best practices, benchmarking and other factors that make aerospace and defense programs successful.

Jean Chamberlin, vice president of Boeing Defense, Space & Security Program Management and a member of the Aviation Week Program Excellence evaluation team said:

"These nominees represent the 'best in class' when it comes to exceptional leadership and program performance, particularly when we reflect upon how far we have come since the first awards in 2005. I am proud of the improvement these programs demonstrated in customer and supply chain integration and collaboration. It is an honor to be recognized by our industry and government partners."

The U.S. Navy has called P-8A the most successful major Department of Defense acquisition program in the past 30 years. The program exceeds requirements and has achieved every major milestone to date.

Rick Heerdt, Boeing vice president and P-8 program manager said:

"We're lucky to have a great partner – the U.S. Navy – on the P-8A program, and the entire industry team deserves credit for this award,"

The F-15 Radar CLS PBL program with the U.S. Air Force provides total system support to the Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar weapon system. The AESA system gives warfighters the capability to simultaneously detect, track, and engage multiple targets.

Kevin Pennington, F-15 Radar CLS program manager said:

"The PBL approach allows Boeing the ability to optimize radar system availability and performance. Ensuring radar availability provides greater situational awareness and decreased workload with increased survivability." 

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Indian Navy's second P-8I maritime surveillance and anti-submarine aircraft arrives

by Devesh Agarwal

Manufacturer, Boeing has delivered the second P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft to the Indian Navy. The first P-8I was delivered in May. The P-8I is the Indian Navy variant of the P-8A Poseidon that Boeing has developed for the U.S. Navy.

Indian Navy's second P-8I IN-320 departs for India

The two aircraft are currently stationed at INS Rajali, informally known as Arakkonam Naval Air Station, just west of Chennai. The second aircraft will begin flight trials in the coming months, while the first P-8I recently completed testing its weapons capabilities, including successfully firing a Boeing Harpoon missile at a target and dropping a torpedo.

The P-8I features open system architecture, advanced sensor and display technologies, and a worldwide base of suppliers, parts and support equipment. P-8I aircraft are built by a Boeing-led industry team that includes CFM International, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Spirit AeroSystems, BAE Systems and GE Aviation.

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Boeing commences building Indian Navy's first P-8I maritime aircraft

Boeing has commenced fabrication of the P-8I the long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft destined for the Indian Navy. India is the first international customer of this variant of the P-8A Poseidon that Boeing is developing for the U.S. Navy, which in turn is based on the popular Boeing 737 passenger aircraft.

This is part of of an eight aircraft order placed by the Indian Navy in January 2009. Earlier, in July this year, Boeing and the Indian Navy completed the final design review of the P-8I.

The P-8I's first part, a bonded aluminium panel that later will be installed on the fuselage's upper lobe to support an antenna, was cut at Spirit AeroSystems, where all Boeing Next-Generation 737 fuselages, nacelles and pylons are designed and built. The panel and other fuselage components will come together on Spirit's existing 737 production line.

Spirit will ship the P-8I fuselage to a Boeing Commercial Airplanes facility in Renton, Wash., in mid-2011 for final assembly. After that, Boeing Defense, Space & Security employees will install mission systems and complete testing prior to delivery to India, expected before January 2013.

Boeing, along with competitor Airbus, have significantly expanded their footprint in India both in the civil aviation, and Boeing is leading the charge in the defence market. Both Boeing and Airbus parent EADS are strong contenders in the Indian Air Force's Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA) tender.

Both companies are partnering with India companies to build a supply chain out of India, and both companies have opened R&D and engineering centres in Bangalore, long the technological and aviation capital of India.

Related articles

• Boeing Opens New P-8 Production Facility in Seattle. (planenews.com)
• BAE Systems to Provide Mission Computer Systems for Indian Navy Patrol Aircraft (eon.businesswire.com)
• Boeing sees no "compelling reason" for 737 upgrade - FT (reuters.com)
• "Indian Navy invites unmaried Men and Women to join Navy as Short Service Commissioned (SSC) Officer as Observer in Aviation Cadre of Executive Branch Course Commencing - July 2011" and related posts (careers-india.com)

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Indian navy orders 8 Boeing P-8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft

The Government of India has ordered eight Boeing P-8I long range maritime reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft.

At $2.1 billion this will be the biggest-ever defence deal of India with United States, double of the $962-million contract signed with US for six C-130J `Super Hercules' aircraft for use by Indian special forces, last year.

The Boeing P-8A Poseidon is a long-range anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft first developed for the US Navy, as a replacement to the ageing P3C Orion, on the successful Boeing 737 airframe.

The P-8I has been customised for India, and the platform's electronics are crucially required in plugging the huge gaps in the Indian Navy's maritime monitoring and surveillance capabilities. The P-8I will also be armed with the deadly, anti-ship, Harpoon missiles, torpedoes and depth bombs to give them potent anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare capability.

The P-8I's are expected to "enhance interoperability" between the Indian and US navies, and is a critical step in the on-going efforts of greater cooperation and growth strategic embrace between the two nations.

The actual signing took place on January 1, with the Indian defence ministry's joint secretary and acquisitions manager (maritime systems) Preeti Sudan and Boeing integrated defence systems vice-president and country head Vivek Lall signing the contract

India will get the first P-8I within 4 years, i.e. end-2012 or early-2013, the rest following in a phased manner by 2015. The contract also provides an option for India to order four to eight more such planes.

While the deal has been long in the making, the recent 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, have provided a boost to the closure. Both the Navy and the Coast Guard were criticised for not being able to pre-empt the attacks, and protection of the long Indian coast line has suddenly become a major priority of the Government.

The P-8I will replace the ageing and fuel-guzzling Russian Tupolev-142Ms of the Indian Navy. Presently, the Navy uses the TU-142Ms, IL-38SDs and Dorniers for surveillance operations in the Indian Ocean region.

The Navy is also shopping for six new medium-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft valued at Rs. 1,600 crore ($ 350 million), to achieve its aim of an effective three-tier surveillance grid in the entire Indian Ocean.

For innermost layer (up to 350 km) surveillance, the Navy is procuring two more Israeli Heron UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), with three ground control stations and two ship control stations, for Rs 386 crore after successfully deploying eight Searcher-II and four Heron UAVs. A joint Indian-Israeli Rs. 1,186 crore effort is on, for developing rotary-wing UAVs for use from warships.

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