The Navy awarded Boeing a contract to build 19 patrol aircraft and P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance, valued at 2,400 million dollars, the aeronautical manufacturer said.
The contract includes ten aircraft to be added to the Navy fleet, five aircraft contracted with Norway and another four to fulfill an existing contract with the United Kingdom, which raises the country’s total acquisition to nine, Boeing said in a statement.
To acquire these aircraft, the United Kingdom and Norway have resorted to the official process of selling military equipment to foreign countries and will receive a P-8A Poseidon variant designed and produced for the Navy.
The United Kingdom, according to the note, will receive its first P-8A aircraft this year and Norway will do so in 2021, according to the company.
The P-8 is a multi-mission long-range patrol aircraft designed for operations in large areas, in the open sea and on the coastal littoral.
As a military derivative of the Boeing 737 Next-Generation commercial aircraft, the P-8 combines superior performance and reliability with an advanced mission system that ensures maximum interoperability in the battle space, according to the company.
The P-8, which is also equipped with a refueling system in flight, includes maritime weapons, a modern and open design of mission systems and commercial support to reduce costs.
The aircraft has been modified to include a compartment for bombs and weapons (two weapons posts in each wing) and can carry 129 sonobuoys, which are light sonar systems that are launched from the aircraft for the detection of submarines.
With more than 180,000 hours of flight so far, the different models of the P-8 (the P-8A Poseidon and the P-8I) carry out patrol work all over the world and participate in antisubmarine and antisurface war missions, as well as work of intelligence, surveillance and recognition, in addition to humanitarian work and search and rescue missions.
At the end of 2017, the Army’s Southern Command sent two P-8A Poseidon aircraft to assist in the search operation of the Argentine submarine ARA San Juan, whose trail was lost when it sailed through Atlantic waters with 44 crew members. (EFEUSA) .-
