RAAF selects Boeing P-8 VMT

Boeing has been selected to provide the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) with P-8 maintenance training devices, it announced on 3 February.

The RAAF’s order is the first international sale of P-8 maintenance training devices. They are being acquired through the US Navy and RAAF cooperative programme.

The training equipment will be used to train RAAF P-8A maintenance personnel from early 2018. The devices are complete replicas of aircraft components, providing high-fidelity and interactive simulations based on actual mission systems software.

Tom Wagner, P-8 maintenance programme manager, Boeing, said: ‘This provides the RAAF with the ability to train its maintainers on more than 1,400 maintenance procedures using the Boeing provided suite of devices.

‘RAAF maintainers will be able to practice at great length before they are required to perform maintenance on the actual P-8A aircraft.’

Earlier in 2016, the RAAF ordered a Boeing P-8 aircrew training system to train its pilots and mission crews to operate the aircraft, its weapons and communications systems and sensors.