Aircraft Award

Boeing today was awarded a $2.1 billion modification to a previously awarded firme-fixed price contract to buy 16 full-rate production Lot I P-8A Poseidon Maritime Surveillance aircraft, according to a Navy contract announcement.

The work is "expected to be completed in April 2017," the announcement reads, adding:

Fiscal 2014 aircraft procurement, Navy funds in the amount of $2,070,439,240 will be obligated on this award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

The P-8A was cleared for full-rate production last month, as InsideDefense.com reported:

The approval from the FRP Milestone Decision Authority was reached Jan. 3, the Navy said in a Jan. 17 statement.

"This significant milestone approval moves the program from low-rate into full-rate production, and allows us to manufacture the remaining aircraft over the next several years with an opportunity for a cost-effective procurement," Cmdr. Tony Rossi, the integrated product team lead for the P-8A program, said in the statement.

On Dec. 1, the Navy made its official initial operational capability announcement for the P-8 aircraft, just as the War Eagles of Patrol Squadron-16 (VP-16) deployed with six Poseidons to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan the same day.