Poseidon Airborne

The Navy's P8A Poseidon aircraft has begun flight testing.The Boeing product will replace the P3C Orion on long range anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare missions.Based on the commercial 787-800 airframe,it has a crew of nine,a ceiling of 41,000 feet and a speed of 490 knots.The Poseidon will be operational in fiscal 2013.It is armed with torpedoes,mines,bombs and cruise missiles.