Australia confirms P-8A purchase

The Australian government has confirmed that they will buy 8 P-8A Poseidon aircraft, with the option to buy four more. The first example will arrive in 2017, and be operational by 2021. The deal will be worth $3.6B USD. They will be the third customer for the P-8, after the US Navy, and India.

The deal has been anticipated for several years now, as the Australian government paid into the program in 2012 to assist development of the type. The aircraft will operate in conjunction with a High Altitude Long Endurance UAV that they are planning to add to their inventory. The most likely candidate for that is the MQ-8C Triton.

Australia has confirmed that it will acquire eight Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, with the first examples to be delivered in 2017.
The aircraft will be fully operational by 2021, says prime minister Tony Abbott in a statement. His statement pegs the deal’s value at A$4 billion ($3.6 billion).

“These state-of-the-art aircraft will dramatically boost Australia’s ability to monitor its maritime approaches and patrol over 2.5 million square kilometres of our marine jurisdiction – an area equating to nearly 4 per cent of the world’s oceans,” says Abbott.

Canberra has also approved an option for an additional four examples.

www.flightglobal.com...

reply to post by Zaphod58


Yes... Awesome... Tell us how much of the worlds oceans they will survey...
How about you tell us how much of our jurisdiction they will patrol instead?
Let's see... 2.5m km2 of our total 14m km2[Source] = 17.85%

These planes allow us to patrol 17.85% of our total marine jurisdiction.

I suppose its better than none?

Though if I could be bothered, I'd fact find how much we could do before this fabulous purchase.

reply to post by Sovaka


And once the Triton buy goes through the patrol area will be increased massively. But the P-8 patrol area is increased over the current fleet of P-3s, and the new sensors will give better resolution of the patrol area.

Somebody had a thread on this aircraft a few weeks ago about how it had major tech problems. I guess the Aussies are not to worried about it.

reply to post by Hoosierdaddy71


It's not that it has major tech problems, but that it's not ready for deployment yet. The Australian buy won't see the aircraft sent to them for three years, which is a long time to have to implement fixes for it. By the time they go operational, the bugs will have been worked out.

reply to post by Zaphod58



You know how threads on this website go. A chip in the paint means it's going to fall out of the sky. I have no doubt it will be a superb aircraft. Especially with three years to deliver.

reply to post by Hoosierdaddy71


It's already a pretty impressive aircraft, but once they have a chance to develop it more, and get the bugs worked out, it's going to be even nicer than the P-3, which is already a pretty nice aircraft for the mission.

YAY more wasteful spending from the Nazi party. To pay for those aircraft the government is going to take funding from:
Medicare
HECS
The ABC
Australia Post
Centrelink... and so on.

And those same Nazi's gave Rupert Murdoch $900million.

Go figure?

reply to post by Zaphod58


That's where I don't know why the Government has bought them now???

Give them the 3 years they need to finished developing and then buy the damn things.

It's not like this country can't find $3-4B to spend on something else more reasonable... like education perhaps?

reply to post by Sovaka


The OT&E report said that they are 3-6 months from solving the worst of the problems with the aircraft. If the Australian government signed the contract today, the first aircraft would fly in a year and a half to two years. There's plenty of time to solve the biggest problems that were outlined in the OT&E report.

It's not like buying a car, where you can go in and say "I'll take that one". The long lead items can take 8 months to a year to be available. The three years is when the first aircraft can be ready.

Considering former Prime Minister Gillard gave 426 Million dollars to Vietnam in foreign Aid, which Vietnam used to buy Mig fighters from Russia ,Taxpayers money being used to help out her commie mates

binaryangel
YAY more wasteful spending from the Nazi party. To pay for those aircraft the government

You must not realise Labor are the ones who were in from 2012, the LNP is just continuing the process.... what else could we buy?
Also we bought the Orions 30 years ago, so they are getting on!

here we go ...hopefully not another "collins class submarine" disaster

reply to post by hopenotfeariswhatweneed


It's in large part the same aircraft in use by the US Navy, so it's not going to be any kind of disaster. The only difference will be if the Australian government decides to put different sensors on it, in which case it's just a matter of software integration.

On 24th September 2012, Boeing announced it had recieved a $1.9 billion order for another 11 aircraft

On 31 July 2013, Boeing received a $2.04 billion contract to build 13 P-8A Poseidons as part of the fourth low-rate initial production lot. Deliveries from the fourth lot will raise the fleet to 37 aircraft by the end of 2016. The contract also funds long-lead parts to build 16 P-8As for the first full-rate production lot, scheduled to be awarded in 2014

Australia is paying A$4 billion (about US$3.6 billion) for eight aircraft. Somebody is getting shafted big time...

These aircraft are also going to be operated out of RAAF Edinburgh in SA. It's about time someone with the balls and brains in government puts a rocket up the RAAF establishment and forces them to move north and north west. There's too many officers with cosy lives in Adelaide that have been delaying and interfering for years with efforts to relocate tactical units closer to where they need to be.

reply to post by binaryangel


I don't particularly like the current government, however the P-8 acquisition has been in the pipeline for a long time. Also, old aircraft need replacing.

reply to post by C0bzz


I might be wrong but I think the money was alocated back in 2008 by Rudd.

reply to post by Snappahead


No one is getting shafted. Those other prices were part of a large order. The larger the order the lower the price per unit cost.

reply to post by Zaphod58


It also depends what was included in the contract - i.e. spares, support facilities, and for how long any warranty periods are. Not convinced we are getting shafted...

reply to post by C0bzz


Your getting shafted. You could get a really good MPA for a lot cheaper. The P8 is designed to support a blue water NAVY in a blue water mission. a fleet of new C-130's would be a much better buy and nd a great muli-purpose platform. the Australians don't have to worry about a coordinated subsurface threat, there is just no reason to expect one. Yeah, your getting a big shaft, and NOTHING in return.