By Renee Hatcher
P-8A MMA Public Affairs

NAVAIR’s P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft Team officially entered its critical design phase on Feb. 1.

Before PDR could be officially “closed”, the team had to resolve only nine action items following the program’s Preliminary Design Review (PDR) in November. The program’s Critical Design Review is scheduled for 2007.

“The fleet needs the P-8A MMA and this program continues to meet its scheduled milestones,” said Capt. Joe Rixey, program manager for NAVAIR’s Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft. “We are executing this program to our technical requirements on time and on budget to deliver the next generation anti-submarine warfare capability to the warfighter.”

At the PDR event, team leaders from NAVAIR’s P-8A Program joined their Boeing counterparts to brief a technical review board on the status of the P-8A Program in Seattle from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4, 2005. Technical review board membership consisted of select NAVAIR competency leadership and subject matter experts.

“Most technical review board members walked away from the P-8A PDR very impressed with how well prepared the program came to the event,” said Cmdr. Mike Moran, lead for the Navy’s P-8A MMA team. “A few even acknowledged that this event was another bench setting example for other programs to follow in terms of methodology and approach for their future technical reviews.”

Rear Adm. Jeff Wieringa, NAVAIR’s assistant commander for research and engineering, was the chairman of the review board that conducted the in-depth technical assessment to ensure the P-8A development was mature enough to proceed as planned into the detailed design phase.

“This is a high performing team,” Wieringa said. “It was an honor to chair the PDR.”

P-8A MMA is the Navy’s replacement platform for the P-3C Orion, securing the Navy’s future in long-range patrol. The primary mission of MMA is to provide persistent anti-submarine warfare (ASW). In addition, MMA will contribute to anti-surface warfare (ASuW) and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) warfighting capabilities as defined in the Sea Shield and FORCEnet elements of the Navy’s Sea Power 21 concept.