Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work has visited Boeing‘s final assembly facilities in Washington state that currently handle the production of both commercial and military marine patrol aircraft, DoD News reported Monday.
Cheryl Pellerin writes that Work also inspected the development of the P8-A Poseidon, which features anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, maritime patrol, ISR and other functions.
The report said the P8-A works to support the Defense Department‘s third offset strategy as it is based on an open architecture and can interoperate manned and unmanned systems.
Work has previously noted that the manned P8-A’s potential operations with a Northrop Grumman-built MQ-4C Triton drone supports efforts to aid human-machine team-ups during missions, Pellerin reports.
The P8-A will eventually replace the U.S. Navy‘s fleet of Lockheed Martin-built P-3 Orion aircraft, the report added.
