Kawasaki P-1
ICAO P1Japan's home-built four-jet submarine hunter, and the only one of its kind. Live Kawasaki P-1 positions.
Flying right now
Live · 30s
No Kawasaki P-1 is transmitting ADS-B at the moment.
Military aircraft are not obliged to broadcast, so this happens regularly. The count refreshes every thirty seconds.
Airframe
- Manufacturer
- Kawasaki
- Role
- Maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare
- Class
- L4J — Landplane, 4 jet engines
- Crew
- 13
- First flight
- 28 September 2007
- In service
- 2013
Operators airborne
Nothing of this type is up right now.
About the Kawasaki P-1
Almost every country that hunts submarines buys the aircraft to do it. Japan built its own, and the P-1 is the only maritime patrol aircraft in the world designed from scratch for the role rather than converted from an airliner.
It has four engines, which is unusual now — the reasoning is redundancy over water and better performance at the low altitudes patrol work demands. It also uses fibre-optic fly-by-light controls, chosen so the flight control system is immune to the magnetic and electrical interference its own sensors generate.
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force is the only operator. Sightings outside Japan are rare, though the type has deployed to Europe for exercises.
Callsign prefixes
- JNAVY
- Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
How to recognise it
- —Four jet engines on a low wing — no other maritime patrol aircraft has four turbofans.
- —A long nose radome, a weapons bay behind it, and a magnetic anomaly detector boom on the tail.
- —Roughly airliner-sized, with a distinctly Japanese look to the tail and nose.
Common questions
+ Why does the P-1 have four engines?
Redundancy over open water and better low-altitude performance. Most modern patrol aircraft use two, so this is a deliberate departure justified by the long over-sea sorties Japan flies.
+ What is fly-by-light?
Flight controls that carry signals on fibre-optic cable rather than electrical wire. It is immune to the electromagnetic interference generated by the aircraft's own sensors, which matters on an aircraft packed with them.
+ Does anyone else fly the P-1?
No. Japan is the sole operator, and export attempts to Britain, Germany and New Zealand were unsuccessful — all chose the P-8 instead.