A contract worth $3.4 billion has been granted to Boeing by the US Navy to commence production of fourteen P-8A Poseidon aircraft for the Royal Canadian Air Force and three additional P-8s for the German Navy.
Canada declared its intention to procure the P-8A Poseidon in November 2023 to replace its existing fleet of CP-140 Auroras. It is anticipated that Canada will receive its initial P-8A in 2026.
Boeing’s economic commitments to Canada through the P-8 acquisition can yield annual benefits of over 3,000 jobs for value-chain partners and Canadian industry and a minimum of $358 million to Canada’s gross domestic product over a ten-year duration.
GE Aviation Canada, CAE, IMP Aerospace & Defence, KF Aerospace, Honeywell Aerospace Canada, Raytheon Canada, and StandardAero are the members of Team Poseidon for Canada. The team capitalises on the contributions of over 550 suppliers from all provinces and 81 Canadian suppliers to the P-8 platform, which sustains over 14,000 Canadian jobs and generates an annual economic benefit of approximately CAD 4 billion for Canada on behalf of Boeing.
After acquiring five P-8 aircraft in June 2021, Germany augmented the German Navy’s fleet with three more P-8s, bringing the total to eight. In 2025, the initial aircraft will be delivered to supplant the nation’s P-3 Orions in service.
Lufthansa Technik and ESG Elektroniksystem-und Logistik-GmbH have formed a partnership with Boeing in Germany to provide systems integration, training, support, and sustainment services that will ensure the German Navy’s missions are carried out with the highest operational availability possible.
In 2023, Boeing and CAE signed cooperation agreements in Canada, Germany, and Norway to expand their collaboration on multi-mission platforms. By leveraging the complementary capabilities of each company, these agreements enable the P-8A Poseidon programme to obtain superior technical, managerial, and cost-effective training solutions.
Presently, nine nations—the United States, Australia, India, United Kingdom, Norway, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Germany, and Canada—have 200 P-8s in service or under contract. Philip June, vice president and programme manager of the P-8A programme, stated that the Poseidon is a proven aircraft with over 600,000 flight hours under its belt.
