The first of 12 Boeing P-8A Poseidon's for the RAAF was rolled out at the company's airfield in Seattle on Tuesday in the presence of dignitaries including the Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Leo Davies.
“The P-8A is the latest in a pedigree of Boeing aircraft that have provided important and significant operational capability to Australia," AIRMSHL Davies said as he accepted the aircraft into service. "This history includes the C-17A Globemaster, E-7A Wedgetail, F/A-18 Classic Hornet, F/A-18F Super Hornet, Helicopter Aircrew Training System and in the near future E/A-18G Growler.”
"The first aircraft will arrive in Australia on 15 November 2016."
Director Maritime Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Response Transition Office, GPCAPT Roger McCutcheon, said the P-8A was a fundamental element of Australia’s future maritime patrol and response strategy in replacing the current AP-3C Orion fleet - due for withdrawal in 2018-19.
“Over the next three years the P-8A will replace our current fleet of AP-3C Orion aircraft currently based at RAAF Base Edinburgh,” GPCAPT McCutcheon said.
The first aircraft will arrive in Australia on 15 November 2016, with the remaining 11 aircraft to be delivered by March 2020.
RAAF aircrew and maintenance personnel have been busy training for the arrival of the P-8A since early 2015, working side by side with the US Navy at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida. The first P-8A Australian pilot flew a four-hour sortie around the Air Station on 14 April 2015.
AIRMSHL Davies said that close cooperation with the US Navy to develop mission, system and training requirements for the P-8A was crucial and has helped strengthen an already close relationship.
“Speaking to my team today, it is obvious they have been the recipients of some of the best training in the world from the US Navy,” he said.
“The bilateral cooperative program for the P-8A between Australia and the United States has been very successful. It is now the model to which our other Air Force projects must aspire.”