UK collaborating on maritime patrol programs

Now this is an interesting, and surprisingly good idea by the UK. To keep their personnel trained on the MPA mission, they have sent 32 people to fly with P-3s in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, as well as P-8As, MQ-4s, and RQ-21As with US units. They are calling it the "Seedcorn" initiative.

One officer is qualified to fly the RQ-21A Blackjack, and four more are slated to enter training on the MQ-4C Triton. Two Triton airframes are scheduled to arrive in Maryland in the coming months. The Blackjack is currently in use by the UK.

Twenty UK military personnel are currently working with the US Navy’s Boeing 737-based P-8 maritime surveillance aircraft, with several of these also set to receive training on the service’s remotely-piloted Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton, the Ministry of Defence has revealed.

Minister for defence personnel, welfare and veterans Anna Soubry says 32 UK personnel are embedded with the maritime patrol aircraft capabilities of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.

Of these, 12 are with units flying variants of the Lockheed P-3 Orion for the air forces of Australia (two), Canada (six) and New Zealand (four). The remainder of the personnel deployed as part of the MoD’s “Seedcorn” initiative are working with P-8 units at NAS Jacksonville in Florida (11) and NAS Patuxent River in Maryland (nine), Soubry says.

www.flightglobal.com...

Crosstraining is always a good idea. Cost and time effective for the UK, and the fees I am sure they are paying will buy a couple tanks of avgas.

I always found that training with other armed forces really helped bring focus to areas I was not proficient in. Different forces just see things differently. Even if they have the same objective they usually approach them from a different direction. I never thought I knew the best way to accomplish something. Always listen, always watch and learn.

reply to post by Montana


It's also a good idea so that when (or if) they get their new MPA platform they have crews trained on it already. The forerunners, from what I've heard are either the Poseidon, or the Triton.

Absolutely!

Hit the ground running errrrmmm... so to speak, at ummmm... 20,000 ft uhh you know what I mean!