-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
First flight of the P-8A Poseidon and all things related to transition
- Thread starter PropStop
- Start date
In certain regimes, alt, time of day, flight station/observer team has beaten the radar operator in locating the feather wake trail of periscopes. I have won my fair share of beer that way. You get real good at picking out buoys, marking on top, and finding swirl patterns. All part of the hunt, and using ALL sensors.
OK, the 737 brings higher onstation loiter speeds, being sold as "it will give you a greater search radius and revisit".... but that all breaks down when you start tracking... The 737 has a whole list of strengths and weaknesses when compared with the P3... but for me, the speed to onstation and offstation, coupled with the higher mission completion rates, are going to make it a highly desired asset. There is more to the problem than one plane onstation, you also have to factor in for certain mission sets, 24 hour coverage and relieving onstation assets. MMA is going to do that just fine, and make the log/ops planning aspect that much easier, so we as a community can focus more on the jack of all trades (ASW/SSC/ISR...) products that our customers want.
Hmph...no #$%^... Learn something new everyday. Surpirses me a little I guess because of what I know of our tactics...but then again...everyone isn't us.
It can apply to "us," as well. Everyone has to stick something out of the water sometime during the day, for one reason or another.
True. I used to avoid any ASW conversations in public with my Flight Engineer when I was a P-3 Acoustic Operator, because he laid claim to finding more subs than I had. A claim I couldn't refute! "Feather! 2 O'clock, 1 mile"
I have read all around the internet that the navy is only going to buy 108 of the P-8's. I am wondering if this will be enough? Considering the current force level of over 200 P-3's how can they expect to accomplish the mission with half the amount of airframes. I doubt that the small number of BAMS will be able to cover the gap. I heard RADM Lemmons speak at the decomming of VP-92 in October and he said that the P-3 force is already stretched to thin. He said the airframes are giving out rapidly and that they only closed down VP-92 because they needed the planes. So it would only make sense that they would want to get enough airframes to cover this important role. I'm wondering also if there is a chance they could purchase more of the P-8s up front or maybe buy surplus ones from the civilian fleet, such as old southwest ones, and convert them later
Put it this way: you really think anywhere close to all of those 200 P-3's are up at any given time? By the same token, what percentage of Southwest's 737's are flyable in a given day? My money is that the P-8 will be able to cover the same tasking requirements being thrown at the P-3 with fewer planes.
There are not 200 P-3's currently in the inventory... I won't go into the exact number, but that's not it. We certainly have bought a lot of them over the years. Quite a few are in the bone yard.
As for detections by Mk-1 Eyeball, that's the truth man. And FE's, due to their seat position tend to spot a lot of them. They actually do have a better view than pilots (at least looking forward). I bought more than a few beers for my FE's due to their spotting abilities.
Still takes a strong team to pull off an ASW mission. Once he's gone sinker, you'd better have a shit hot Jez and a good TACCO. And a good IFT to hump buoys... That's what makes flying a P-3 so much fun, teamwork! 'Course, if your team sucks, that's not much fun.
As for detections by Mk-1 Eyeball, that's the truth man. And FE's, due to their seat position tend to spot a lot of them. They actually do have a better view than pilots (at least looking forward). I bought more than a few beers for my FE's due to their spotting abilities.
Still takes a strong team to pull off an ASW mission. Once he's gone sinker, you'd better have a shit hot Jez and a good TACCO. And a good IFT to hump buoys... That's what makes flying a P-3 so much fun, teamwork! 'Course, if your team sucks, that's not much fun.
I weep...
Brett
NQR
BAMS will be able to accomplish many of the more mundane tasks that the P-3's now do, namely SSC, that is if it is not cancelled for cost overruns.
http://uav.navair.navy.mil/new_bams/new_bams.htm
http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/bams.htm
Lockheed's proposal, a modified Predator/Reaper:
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/BroadAreaMaritimeSurveillanceBAMS/index.html
Northrop Grumman's, based on the Global Hawk:
http://www.is.northropgrumman.com/systems/bams.html
Welcome to the world of the ATO...and if the JFACC minions don't have you under their thumb, try asking the TACAMO folks how they like it.
Well lets be fair. While the P-3 is old and worn out and the P-8 will be new, the SWA comparison is not a good comparison. Not only are Southwest's B737's newer then then any P-3, they don't fly their 737s over salt water, have them modified for bomb bays and sono tubes, launch weapons off them or have them go down for mission avionics and weapons systems. You can be sure the brand new P-8 will not be nearly as reliable as a plain vanilla B737.
So 100 P-8s replace 200 P-3s because of their higher reliability etc... right? I can buy that now.
So what happens when the P-8s get a little age and start going down for avionics issues etc?
So what happens when the P-8s get a little age and start going down for avionics issues etc?