Boeing receives $2.4 billion US Navy P-8A Poseidon contract

The U.S. Navy has awarded Boeing a $2.4 billion production contract for the next 19 P-8A Poseidon aircraft. The contract includes 10 aircraft to add to the current inventory of P-8As in the U.S. Navy fleet, all five jets currently under contract for Norway, and the four aircraft remaining for the existing United Kingdom contract, bringing the total United Kingdom acquisition to nine aircraft.

The United Kingdom and Norway are acquiring the Boeing aircraft through the Foreign Military Sales process and will receive a variant designed and produced for the U.S. Navy called the P-8A Poseidon. The United Kingdom will receive their first aircraft in 2019 and Norway will begin receiving aircraft in 2021.

The P-8, a long-range multi-mission maritime patrol aircraft capable of broad-area, maritime, and littoral operations, is a military derivative of the Boeing Commercial Next-Generation 737 airplane, with maritime weapons, open mission system architecture, and commercial-like support for affordability. The aircraft can carry 129 sonobuoys and is fitted with an in-flight refueling system. With more than 180,000 flight hours to date, the P-8 variants patrol the globe performing anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; humanitarian; and search and rescue missions.