WASHINGTON — The Navy is seeking to purchase P-8A Poseidon aircraft once again, after pausing procurement in fiscal 2025 and FY26, this year’s budget request shows.
The FY27 budget request, released in April, requests 12 new P-8A aircraft for just over $4.2 billion. The Navy said that FY27 is the last planned year of production, and that the last aircraft delivery is expected in the first quarter of FY32.
Likewise, the budget request includes more than $381 million in FY27 for modifying the aircraft, including radar upgrades as well as “airframe related structural improvements.” Also included in that pot of money is fielding the P-8A Poseidon Increment 3 Block 2, which Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) announced on April 24 has reached initial operative capability.
The Increment 3, Block 2 updates include modifications to the airframe and avionics systems, and the aircraft is outfitted with new airframe racks, radome, antennas, sensors, and wiring, according to NAVAIR. Additionally, the Navy said that the update includes a new combat systems suite, a wideband satellite communication system, an anti-submarine warfare signals intelligence capability, among other new features.
The Navy shipped the first P-8A aircraft to Boeing in March 2024 to undergo these upgrades at the defense firm’s maintenance, repair, and overhaul hangar at Cecil Airport in Jacksonville, Fla., and updates to the initial aircraft wrapped up in June 2025.
“The P-8A Inc 3 Blk 2 modifications enhance Naval Aviation’s Maritime Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Targeting (ISR&T) capabilities — the eyes of the Fleet,” said Rear Adm. Michael Wosje, air warfare director, in a Navy news release on April 24. “This capability enhancement is in line with the CNO Fighting Instructions and the Golden Fleet Initiative, which shifts the paradigm from platform-centric thinking to a warfighting system.”
The maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft conducts a series of missions, including anti-submarine warfare, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations, according to NAVAIR.