Boeing to upgrade flight simulators for Navy P-8A maritime patrol aircraft for training and mission rehearsal
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. – The Boeing Co. will upgrade U.S. Navy aircraft flight simulators for the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol jet under terms of a $45.8 million order announced Wednesday.
Officials of the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division in Orlando, Fla., are asking simulation and training experts at the Boeing Defense, Space & Security segment in St. Louis to provide P-8A aircrew training system production concurrency upgrades for the Navy and the government of Australia.
Boeing has provided provide P-8A operational flight simulators (OFTs), weapons tactics trainers (WTTs), and part task trainers (PTTs), as well as training systems support centers, and electronic classrooms for P-8A aircrew training.
Related: Navy orders P-8A Poseidon flight simulators from Boeing for aircraft operations and weapons
The P-8 is a militarized version of the Boeing 737 single-aisle jetliner hardened for long-range surveillance, maritime patrol, and anti-submarine warfare missions.
The P-8A Poseidon is the latest Navy aircraft designed to execute long-range anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions. It is replacing the P-3C Orion, which has been in operation for more than 50 years.
The P-8A OFT is a full-motion reproduction of the aircraft cockpit, which replicates the visual out-of-window display and cockpit noises. It simulates the systems, equipment features, and performance characteristics for pilot training.
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As a stand-alone configuration, the WTT is for weapons and sensor employment, and communications training. When used together, the OFT and WTT form a weapons systems trainer for full aircrew mission training. The P-8A PTT, meanwhile, is for individual or sub-team learning, practice, and refresher training.
Among the latest upgrades to the P-8A aircraft is the addition of a sixth crew workstation on early models of the aircraft. Early versions of the P-8A Poseidon had five crew workstations, and later versions have six workstations. The P-8A has workstations with universal multifunction displays, and ready accommodation for additional workstations and workload sharing.
P-8A squadrons are being based at Jacksonville Naval Air Station, Fla.; Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Oak Harbor, Wash., and at several overseas bases for forward deployment.
Related: Boeing to provide Navy P-8A Poseidon patrol jet flight simulators in $225 million contract
On this order Boeing will do the work in St. Louis; Jacksonville and Orlando, Fla; Adelaide, Australia; and Whidbey Island NAS, Wash., and should be finished by December 2022.
For more information contact Boeing Defense, Space & Security online at www.boeing.com/defense, or the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division-Orlando at www.navair.navy.mil/nawctsd.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
