Last week New Zealand received the first of four Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft direct from the manufacturer during a ceremony at the Museum of Flight.
“As a maritime nation, delivery of the P-8A will ensure New Zealand maintains a patrol and response capability that will protect and support law enforcement in our Exclusive Economic Zone and the Southern Ocean,” said Sarah Minson, acting Deputy Secretary Capability Delivery, New Zealand Ministry of Defence. “The P-8A will also assist our South Pacific neighbours and deliver long-range search and rescue capability.”
The milestone comes four years after the New Zealand Government entered into an agreement with the U.S. Navy for the P-8A.
“The unmatched, multi-mission maritime patrol capabilities of the P-8 will provide New Zealand the ability to extend their reach into the Pacific and beyond,” said Philip June, vice president and program manager, P-8 Programs. “New Zealand joins eight other global customers including nearby Australia that have selected or already operate the P-8 and benefit greatly from its long-range maritime surveillance and warfare capabilities.”
.jpg "New Zealand’s first P-8A Poseidon aircraft. (Boeing photo)")
Boeing Defence Australia will provide sustainment services for New Zealand’s fleet with the support of the P-8 International Program.
New Zealand’s three remaining P-8 aircraft are all in advanced stages of production and will be delivered in 2023. The aircraft will replace New Zealand’s current fleet of six P-3K2 Orions and will be based at Royal New Zealand Air Force Base Ohakea.
To date, the global operating P-8 fleet has amassed more than 450,000 mishap-free flight hours. The P-8 is a long-range anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft capable of broad-area, maritime and littoral operations. In addition, the P-8 performs humanitarian and search and rescue missions around the globe.
Boeing has awarded Lufthansa Technik a contract for sustainment services within its support of the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s (RNZAF) future fleet of four P-8A aircraft that will leverage commercial capabilities to improve readiness rates.
The contract is for provision of Lufthansa Technik’s Total Component Support (TCS), a comprehensive component services program for the 737 covering more than four hundred commercial common parts included in the configuration of the P-8A, a military derivative of the popular airliner. Leveraging the 737 commercial market in support of P-8A international customers will allow smaller fleets easier access to necessary global supply chain inventory from the more than four thousand 737 aircraft operating today.
“Our collaboration with Lufthansa Technik is a strong example of how industry can work together to solve customer challenges and maintain high readiness rates,” said Torbjorn (Turbo) Sjogren, Boeing vice president and general manager, Government Services. “Our goal is to expand service offerings from a strategic German industry partner for additional P-8A customers to benefit.”
The TCS program provided by Lufthansa Technik allows the RNZAF to reduce investment in commercial common parts and improve aircraft readiness through access to the German company’s maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) global supply chain.
Boeing and Lufthansa Technik signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2021 to support Germany’s P-8A Poseidon fleet. The MOU expanded to a three-party agreement with ESG Elektroniksystem- und Logistik-GmbH in 2022.
“Lufthansa Technik is a longstanding partner with a long history of supporting Boeing aircraft around the world,” said Michael Haidinger, president of Boeing in Germany. “This new contract is a clear demonstration of our commitment to German industry and how we partner across the Atlantic and globally, shaping meaningful partnerships that ensure continued economic and industrial growth in Germany.”
Under Boeing’s Performance-Based Logistics (PBL) program, Lufthansa Technik also provides hardware support to the Italian fleet of Boeing KC-767A tankers and has facilitated outstanding aircraft availability for the Italian Air Force.
“As a renowned expert for Special Mission aircraft and a leading maintenance, repair and overhaul provider with decades of experience in servicing commercial Boeing 737s, we are delighted to soon start servicing New Zealand’s Poseidon fleet. The strong partnership with Boeing enables us to offer the best possible service level over the entire life cycle of the aircraft,” said Michael von Puttkamer, vice president special aircraft services at Lufthansa Technik. “We are very much looking forward to further cooperation with our partners in Germany and beyond.”
In July 2018, the government of New Zealand announced the purchase of four P-8A Poseidon aircraft to replace their aging fleet of P-3K2 maritime patrol aircraft. The first P-8A to New Zealand was delivered December 2022, with three remaining aircraft to be delivered in 2023.
Deployed around the world with 155 aircraft delivered or in service, and more than 450,000 collective, mishap free flight hours, the P-8A is vital for global anti-submarine warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and search-and-rescue operations.
The Boeing P-8 is truly a multi-mission maritime patrol aircraft, excelling at anti-submarine warfare; anti-surface warfare; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and search and rescue. The P-8 can fly higher (up to 41,000 ft) and get to the fight faster (490 knots). Shorter transit times reduce the size of the Area of Probability when searching for submarines, surface vessels or search and rescue survivors. P-8 is also designed for low altitude missions and has already proven its abilities supporting humanitarian and search and rescue missions.
A proven system with more than 150 aircraft in service the P-8 has executed more than 450,000 mishap free flight-hours around the globe.
The P-8 has two variants: The P-8I, flown by the Indian Navy, and the P-8A Poseidon flown by the U.S. Navy, the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Norwegian Air Force.
Militaries that have selected the P-8 include the Royal New Zealand Air Force, Republic of Korea Navy and German Navy. The P-8’s performance and reliability delivers confidence in an uncertain world — in any condition, anywhere, anytime.
The P-8 combines the most advanced weapon system in the world with the cost advantages of the most operated commercial airliner on the planet. The P-8 shares 86% commonality with the commercial 737NG, providing enormous supply chain economies of scale in production and support. Boeing’s expertise in commercial fleet management and derivative aircraft sustainment provides customers with greater availability at a lower operational cost. The P-8 is engineered for 25 years/25,000 hours in the harshest maritime flight regimes, including extended operations in icing environments.