Pair of Royal Air Force P-8 Poseidons hit significant milestone firsts in Indo-Pacific
Deployed halfway around the world, and for the longest duration to date, a pair of Royal Air Force Poseidon P-8s has hit some significant firsts.
Joined by an engineering team from RAF Lossiemouth, the P-8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft have participated for the first time in Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2024 (RIMPAC).
It is the largest maritime training exercise in the Indo-Pacific region with 25,000 personnel from 29 countries taking part, centred on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.
RIMPAC has seen the largest gathering to date of international P-8s, with the RAF team collaborating with counterparts from the US, Australia, India, and New Zealand.
Engineering support for the two frontline Poseidon squadrons, the operational conversion unit and, in due course, Wedgetail, is provided by the Poseidon Line Squadron (PLS), a single large squadron of engineers who work under the RAF's ISTAR Air Wing Support.
The RAF detachment has been larger than most other deployed nations, who have deployed with a single aircraft.
As a result, the PLS engineers have also been able to support other nations with equipment and tooling.
The RAF Senior Engineering Officer on PLS, Squadron Leader Joe Reynolds, said: "The engineering detachments are co-located in the same building, and it's been really useful to meet people from the other detachments, some of whom I've spoken to on a six-weekly basis over the past two years but never met in person.
"There's been a lot of information-sharing, answering technical questions and getting second opinions on problems."
The first global deployment for the RAF's Poseidon fleet has been supported by a 26-strong team of engineers deploying to Hawaii together with a party of logistics support specialists.
Another first
The engineers, in another first, conducted in-depth maintenance on the aircraft, which had previously only been undertaken at RAF Lossiemouth – this work was carried out at the same time as the exercise.
Sqn Ldr Reynolds said: "We've stretched ourselves to an extent to do this type of detachment so far away from home, but, on this occasion, we've also managed to concurrently deliver operations in the UK which over a distance of several thousand miles is absolutely a first for Poseidon."
After the exercise, the aircraft will return to RAF Lossiemouth where the nine-strong Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft fleet is based.
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