By US Navy on Wednesday, July 10th, 2013
P-8A Poseidon Fires Harpoon, Hits Mark
After approximately six minutes of flight time, one in all NAVAIR’s test aircraft successfully launched a Harpoon missile during a live fire event June 24 in California on the Navy’s Point Mugu Sea Test Range and scored an instantaneous hit on a Most economical Modular Target.
Completing only 1 practice dry run, a P-8A Poseidon from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 20 successfully fired a Harpoon AGM-84D Block IC missile from station 10 at the first hot run, which was later confirmed by onsite explosive ordnance disposal personnel.
“The successful launch of 1 of the U.S. Navy’s most dependable over-the-horizon all-weather anti-ship missiles, the Harpoon Block IC, from the P-8A is a major milestone in naval aviation,” said Capt. Carl Chebi, Precision Strike Weapons (PMA-201) program manager.
For greater than 40 years, the Harpoon weapon system has served the Navy well by offering a low-level and sea-skimming cruise trajectory that supports high survivability and effectiveness. This air-launched variant of the Harpoon 1C is currently integrated at the P-3C.
According to Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Program Office (PMA-290) Program Manager Capt. Scott Dillon, the importance of this program milestone is that the P-8A was in a position to launch the Harpoon at a target and attain an immediate hit.
“As the Navy’s replacement for the P-3 Orion, the P-8A Poseidon should be performing maritime surveillance missions as needed by the operations tempo and the success of this testing evolution brings us one step toward Initial Operational Capability [IOC] this autumn,” Dillon said. “The test was very successful and the Harpoon directly hitting the objective proves the system’s capability and lethality.”
The purpose of this test was to validate the weapons hardware and software integration. The weapons integration testing that was achieved last week at Point Mugu was a culmination for the entire lab development and integration in addition to developmental testing during the last year to get one step in the direction of fielding an anti-surface warfare (ASuW) weapon for fleet IOC, said Paul Sheridan, the P-8A assistant program manager for system engineering assigned to PMA-290’s Weapons Systems Integration team.
At the completion of this developmental testing, the P-8A should be ready for Harpoon operational testing to support fleet IOC.
“This live-fire event was made possible in the course of the efforts of teams across NAVAIR including PMA-290 and PMA-201 here, in China Lake and Corona, Calif.,” said Chebi. “The teams continuously meet the challenges placed before them from test-asset preparations, ground testing, separation tests and the tip-to-end live-fire evaluation. PMA-201 will continue to support the P-8A program and supply solutions to satisfy current requirements in addition the mixing of future requirements in order to advance the Navy’s long-range maritime patrol capability.”
Dillon and Sheridan agreed with Chebi that the Harpoon P-8A testing was a collaborative effort between PMA-290 and PMA-201.
The P-8A Poseidon will replace the P-3C Orion as a protracted-range anti-submarine warfare (ASW), anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, in a position to broad-area, maritime and littoral operations. This valuable addition to naval air forces will protect the ocean base and to boost the Navy’s forward presence.
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