Deploying a pair of Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft halfway around the world, and for the longest duration to date, has posed some unique challenges for an engineering team from RAF Lossiemouth.
Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2024 (RIMPAC) 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.
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 Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) Air Wing Support.
RIMPAC has seen the largest gathering to date of international P-8s, with the RAF team sharing a dispersal with counterparts from the United States, Australia, India, and New Zealand. 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 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.”
Squadron Leader Reynolds
RAF Senior Engineering Officer on PLS
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.
In another first, the engineers have also conducted depth maintenance on the aircraft, this has previously only been undertaken at RAF Lossiemouth, this work has been carried out concurrently while conducting the exercise successfully.
“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.”
Squadron Leader Reynolds
At the conclusion of the exercise the aircraft will return to RAF Lossiemouth where the nine-strong Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft fleet is based.
