A new fleet of 9 P-8 maritime patrol aircraft is to be based at RAF Lossiemouth.
Prime Minister David Cameron will confirm plans to buy nine new Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraft as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review.
According to the Ministry of Defence, the £12 billion uplift in funding will be focused on investments that will “help to ensure the UK can respond to diverse threats in an increasingly dangerous and uncertain world”. This will include 9 new Boeing P-8 maritime patrol aircraft for “maritime surveillance, anti-submarine and anti-surface ship warfare, increasing further the protection of our nuclear deterrent and our new aircraft carriers.”
Good Start.
So let me get this right, AFTER spending £4 billion on the MR4 Nimrod they were scrapped and the reason given was ” it was based on a 50 year old civilian airliner design, the Comet”. Well we knew that before the £4 billion was spent. So now we are buying P-8 Posidons based on a airliner the Boeing 737 that was designed in 1964. Brilliant.
The P8s are brand new builds
One of our regular posters was involved with MRA4, he’s made it clear that they had a huge amount of problems that would have cost another few billion to rectify if even possible.
I know the P-8s will be brand new builds but it’s still based on the B737 from 1964 just like the Nimrod was based on the Comet. So the answer is a 10 year gap in MPA capability.
This 737 is not the same aircraft built in the 60’s; very different!
The answer to what?
Nimrods were very old airframes, so what if the P8s designed after the 737
Campbell – your point is irrelevant to the brand new and complex combat capability these aircraft iwll be providing. Nimrod MRA4 was in the end a disaster of a project…indeed in effect wasting masses of tax payers money….. but that didnt make it suitable by 2010 to enter service as a safe and airworthy LRMPA.
The 737 has been majorly upgraded and modernised over the years. Comet was not. P8 is superior in a lot of ways. Boeing support already in place and can be extended.
Some people are never happy
Jonathan Gray
Why the P8 ? Why are we buying from the US. The K1 from Japan looks more capable
About time
So was the black swan sloop more than just a design exercise ??clhttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/joint-concept-note-1-12-future-black-swan-class-sloop-of-war-a-group-system
The cost effectiveness of the P-8 will be unmatched. The 730s are still in production, with new variants being released as of 2015. Parts, upgrades, support, safety & engineering reports will be available for decades to come. The P-8 and 737 will easily be maintained as cutting edge for years to come.
Great news that we are to regain this capability. Not so good news that like the Lightnings, these aircraft will be built in the USA and not in the UK. Let’s hope that the UK strikes a good deal by ensuring that there is a maximum of British content in them.