US mainstay of Taiwan Strait patrols, the P-8, in spotlight at Paris Air Show
While ‘core mission’ is freedom of navigation, the aircraft’s ‘bread-and-butter’ role is intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
“We ensure that the international laws are being upheld, and that’s kind of our primary mission whenever we’re operating within all the AORs [area of responsibility],” he said in response to the South China Morning Post’s inquiry about the P-8’s role in the region.
Pitts said he had been posted in “pretty much every fleet [and] a little bit all over the world”, including with the seventh fleet that operates in the Asia-Pacific region. Most recently, he was based in Japan.
The deployment of the P-8 by US allies was helping to boost interoperability, he said. “And especially the fellow P-8 platforms, helping, working with them, see what’s the best way to operate this aircraft in the best state there could be.”
The Boeing P-8 is also used for anti-submarine and surface warfare missions. It is armed with torpedoes, Harpoon anti-ship missiles and sonobuoys – which are dropped from aircraft or ships to detect and track submarines and underwater threats.