RD, the Nimrod went out of service 3 years ago. Boeing delivered the E3D 3 years after it was ordered and the same with Air Seeker. While we are jawing and jossing about P8 here there is no talk of even ordering any MPA yet. Given the next SDSR is a year off that leaves just 3 years from my 10.
When the first aircraft is delivered, working from precedent, it will not start flying immediately and assuming 8 aircraft at one per month, that would be near a year before you had a full fleet.
Assuming crew training at two crews at a time, and 4 crews per year, it would take 3 years to train the full cadre. P8 is also quite different from the 707 so there would be a significant engineering training schedule too. On my fag packet calculation that runs to 10 years.
The Sentinel took 5 years from first flight of the production aircraft to first operational flight.
You might achieve IOC after 8 but would not get FOC until possibly 11 years from the cessation of MOPS.
You make the point about a number of scattered crews around the world; their career futures have already been discussed on Pprune. Will they all be held to RoS or will some move on?
Last edited by Pontius Navigator; 21st Jan 2014 at 21:32.