Navy Times

NAVAL AIR STATION WHIDBEY ISLAND, Wash. — At first glance, the U.S. Navy’s new aircraft looks like nothing more than an airliner. That’s until you look under the wing of the P-8A Poseidon.

Its pylons can carry some of the fleet’s most fearsome weapons, like the heat-seeking Sidewinder missile or the Harpoon anti-ship missile. It may be built on a Boeing 737 airframe, but make no mistake: the P-8A is a warplane.

With the constant roar of EA-18G Growlers on the flight line beyond, the service unveiled its new training center for an aircraft that it views as a centerpiece of efforts to deter potential adversaries like Putin’s Russia.

This state-of-the-art airplane supports not only the “pivot to the Pacific but the reoccurring and the re-emerging Russian threat in the Atlantic,” Rear Adm. Kyle Cozad, the head of the Patrol and Reconnaissance Group, told me in an interview.

Continue reading, “The Navy’s new spy plane will make Russia very, very nervous.”