Boeing Surveillance Plane Found Not Effective for Mission

Seattle Times ^ | Jan 23, 2014 3:16 PM ET | Tony Capaccio

[maddog55]

A new Boeing Co. (BA) surveillance aircraft deployed to Japan last month isn’t yet effective at hunting submarines or performing reconnaissance over large areas -- two of its main missions, the Pentagon’s weapons tester found.

Flaws in the $35 billion program included the plane’s radar performance, sensor integration and data transfer, Michael Gilmore, chief of the Pentagon testing office, wrote in his annual report on major weapons, which has yet to be released. He said the new P-8A Poseidon exhibited “all of the major deficiencies” identified in earlier exercises when subjected to more stressful realistic combat testing from September 2012 to March 2013.

“Many of these deficiencies” led Gilmore to determine that the P-8A “is not effective for the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission and is not effective for wide area anti-submarine search,” he said in a section of the report obtained by Bloomberg News. The Navy plans to conduct additional testing “to verify the correction of some deficiencies,” he wrote.

Gilmore’s conclusions suggest the initial aircraft in the program -- which packs a modified Boeing 737-800 with radar and sensors -- aren’t ready for deployment. Among its primary missions is tracking Chinese submarines. Six of the planes have been deployed to Japan supporting 7th Fleet maritime patrol operations at Naval Air Facility Atsugi as part of the U.S. strategic pivot to the Asia-Pacific region.

[itsahoot]

Yeah. A 737 is perfect for a low and slow long loiter time mission.

Not as low and slow as this.

[Sequoyah101]

Field experience only CONFIRMED the shortcomings found in pre-deployment testing.

“He said the new P-8A Poseidon exhibited “all of the major deficiencies” identified in earlier exercises when subjected to more stressful realistic combat testing from September 2012 to March 2013.”

They already KNEW this platform is deficient. Shouldn’t somebody go to Leavenworth for a very long visit and take their pocket politician with them?

What good does it do to say anything. Only the people in the right and exposing these crimes are persecuted. Nobody is prosecuted.

$35 Billion for a POS system and the SOBs cut $600 Million from established veterans programs. Prove somebody’s palms aren’t being greased.

[maddog55]

Nobody goes to jail in these defense programs, they get promoted. This aircraft has had major problems since it’s inception, failed miserably throughout testing and when requirements can’t be met, they just drop the requirement. End result as you state is a POS aircraft that can’t do it’s job and puts people at risk either in the aircraft or the people they are supposed to be protecting on the ground or on ships.

[MHalblaub]

“Radar for a sub searcher? It needs sonar”

or MAD. To operate MAD on an aircraft the aircraft has to fly low. Therefore no MAD on the P-8...