US Navy, Air Force in first-ever P-8A refueling

The U.S. Navy and Air Force achieved a historic milestone last week when an Air Force KC-135 tanker refueled the Navy’s P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft.

A Naval Air Station Patuxent River P-8A Poseidon was refueled by a 459th Air Refueling Wing KC-135.

“The 459th and the Air Force Reserve Command is honored and delighted to support the Navy on the P-8A project,” said Lt. Col. David Williams, 459th Operations Group deputy group commander. “We have a longstanding relationship with NAVAIR and we were excited to play a role in assisting the engineers with the development of the boom refueling capabilities of the P-8A.”

As the Navy’s newest aircraft for maritime patrol and reconnaissance, it is important the P-8A is able to sustain flight for lengthy periods of time.

“The team has completed operational tests on the integration of the AGM-84 Harpoon [missile system] for surface warfare and [multi-static active acoustic search systems] integration used in anti-submarine warfare,” said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Shannon Hoover, Naval Air Forces Atlantic VX-1 Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron P-8A operational test director.

Prior to contacting the 459th for tanker support, pilots with NAVAIR underwent training toward in-flight refueling certification.

“We are coming from a community that has never had an organic tanking capability, so we are learning how to get this done,” said Hoover. “The pilots completed ground school, as well as a simulator training course, both in the E-6B Mercury and the P-8A Operational Flight Trainers. When it came time to start scheduling a tanker to take us to the next phase of training. We reached out to the 459th.”

The P-8A is only the second Navy aircraft to be equipped to receive fuel mid-flight from a USAF tanker; the first being the E-6B Mercury nearly 30 years ago.