The second of overall nine Poseidon P-8A maritime patrol aircraft purchased by the UK defense ministry has landed at the Royal Air Force base Lossiemouth, in Scotland.
Named City of Elgin (ZP802), the aircraft arrived home after taking off from Navair Air Station Jacksonville in the early morning hours of March 13. Pride of Moray, the first unit in the fleet, arrived in the UK in February.
The Boeing-built submarine hunter will be temporarily stationed at Kinloss Barracks until the GBP75 million upgrade project at RAF Lossiemouth is completed later this year.
The nine aircraft – military versions of Boeing’s 737-800 – will be operated by the Royal Air Force’s 120 and, later, 201 Squadrons at Lossiemouth, but with Royal Navy personnel as part of the crew on each sortie.
Poseidon aircraft will protect the UK’s continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent and be central to NATO missions across the North Atlantic, co-operating closely with the US and Norwegian Poseidon fleets.
The aircraft can carry up to 129 sonobuoys, small detection devices which are dropped from the aircraft into the sea to search for enemy submarines. The systems survey the battlespace under the surface of the sea and relay acoustic information via radio transmitter back to the aircraft.
Poseidons will also be armed with Harpoon anti-surface ship missiles and Mk 54 torpedoes capable of attacking both surface and sub-surface targets.
