The first German P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft has completed its maiden flight. With this milestone, the German Navy is close to assuming operational and supply responsibility.
The flight traveled within Washington State from the aircraft factory in Renton, where both the P-8A and its civilian variant, the Boeing 737, are built, to the Boeing Military Delivery Center at King County International Airport in Seattle. The aircraft will be completed there. The mission systems and military-specific components will be installed. These consist of long-range communications equipment, self-protection systems, weapons, and state-of-the-art sensors. These sensors include, for example, the launch system for the sonar buoys, which , depending on the model, passively search for signals or actively emit signals to detect submarines, and the associated sensor stations that evaluate these signals.
Fregattenkapitän Robert H., responsible for the P-8A in the naval command, said: ” The aircraft is expected to be fully equipped and taken over by the Bundeswehr by the end of August this year. Transfer to its future home base, the Nordholz naval air base in Lower Saxony, is expected in September. The remaining seven aircraft will then follow successively.” The fleet is expected to be complete by the middle of next year.
Infrastructure at the Nordholz site is being expanded
Two flight crews have already been trained, and technician training is also in full swing. By the end of 2025, the new infrastructure at the Nordholz base is scheduled to be completed to the extent that the P-8A can then seamlessly take over the missions of its predecessor, the P-3C Orion. However, significantly more flight hours are expected to be available than with the P-3C. To this end, further extensive infrastructure will be built at the Nordholz site in the coming years. Plans include, for example, a completely new hangar including offices and recreation rooms, as well as an aircraft wash bay. Due to its long-range capability and the resulting flight duration in the operational area, which only a maritime patrol aircraft can achieve, the P-8A project is of paramount importance. It is therefore classified as requiring accelerated processes.
The P-8A is also used by important partner nations such as the United States, Great Britain, Norway, and soon Canada, which, due to the almost identical configuration, opens up extensive opportunities for cooperation. The civilian base aircraft is considered reliable and has proven itself many times over.