The third Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft (MPA), ZP803, of the Royal Air Force has arrived at the RAF Lossiemouth on 14 October.
In a tweet, P-8A Poseidon RAF said: “We are extremely proud to welcome ZP803 ‘Terence Bulloch DSO*DFC*’ to the growing Poseidon MRA Mk1 fleet and to her new home @RAFLossiemouth.
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“Arrival of the third of nine new Maritime Patrol Aircraft will help #TeamLossie grow and contribute to its vital role #SecuringTheSeas.”
In 2016, Boeing was contracted by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to supply nine P-8A Poseidon MPA for the RAF under a foreign military sale programme of the US Government.
The aircraft will locate and track hostile submarines and improve the UK’s maritime search-and-rescue (SAR) capability.
In February, the RAF received the first Poseidon MPA, ‘Pride of Moray’ (ZP801) at a military base in Scotland after being flown from the US.
The second aircraft, ‘City of Elgin’ ZP802, was delivered in March.
All the nine Poseidon aircraft are expected to be handed over by the end of next year, following which they will achieve complete operational capability in 2024 from Lossiemouth.
In July, the Australian Government signed a new deal with Boeing Defence to deliver support services and provide advanced surveillance and response capabilities to the P-8A Poseidon aircraft.
Earlier this week, resurfacing work for the runways at RAF Lossiemouth reached an important milestone. The work commenced in May.
In August last year, VolkerFitzpatrick received a £75m contract from Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) for the airfield operating surfaces project.
