For all its faults, it's still less absurd than the AF. It's more like HSL with more useful flight time, better pay, and better deployment sites.
...And zero SA or coordination capability outside of their own lane? During C2X, the P8 was more of a liability than anything else. At best, they were getting "shot down" in the exercise scenario. At worst, they were cutting through my strike stack, even though we had coordinated airspace through our own CSG and the CSG4 evaluators. I still can't fathom the depths of unprofessional behavior that resulted in a P8 pilot telling our C2 controller that "they don't work for us" when he was kindly asked to relocate to avoid a midair with multiple airwing players.
I'm really hoping that's not the norm, because it's completely unacceptable.