Boeing has been selected to provide the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) with maintenance training devices for the P-8A Poseidon, marking the first international sale of equipment used by the US Navy.
The virtual trainers, which are being purchased through a cooperative program, will be used to train maintenance personnel from early 2018.
The maintenance training devices provide interactive, high-fidelity simulations based on actual mission systems software, while hardware-based trainers are full-scale replicas of aircraft components, the company stated.
“This provides the RAAF with the ability to train its maintainers on more than 1,400 maintenance procedures using the Boeing-provided suite of devices,” said Tom Wagner, P-8 maintenance program manager at Boeing.
“RAAF maintainers will be able to practise at great length before they are required to perform maintenance on the actual P-8A aircraft.”
Boeing announced in May 2015 that it would be providing the RAAF with a complete training system for the maritime patrol aircraft that utilises simulators to train pilots and mission crews to operate the aircraft, and its sensors, communications and weapons systems.
The company said it plans to start delivering P-8As late this year, and the training system in 2018.
