News Review: P-8A Poseidon program reaches Milestone C | ADM Oct 2010

The US Navy’s P-8A maritime patrol aircraft program has received approval to begin low rate production.

The P-8A program reached Milestone C on August 11, after a review and subsequent approval by the Pentagon’s Defense Acquisition Board.

This approval brings the Poseidon one step closer to Initial Operating Capability (IOC) for the fleet in 2013.

NAS Jacksonville in Florida will host the first operational P-8A squadron.

“The team has worked extremely hard to reach this major acquisition milestone,” said PMA-290 Program Manager Capt. Mike Moran.

“The airplane is performing very well in testing which should result in an on-time and on-budget delivery to the warfighters.”

The P-8A will replace the P-3C that has served the Navy since the 1960s as the primary aircraft for anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare.

The RAAF plans to acquire a squadron of up to nine P-8As, augmented with a smaller fleet of long-range UAVs, to replace its current force of 18 AP-3C Orions, starting in 2017.