Christmas has come early for the UK as the US Department of Defense (DoD) announced that Boeing has been awarded the first production contract for the UK’s P-8A order.
As part of the $1.2 billion contract, announced on 21 December, ten full rate production P-8As will be manufactured under Lot 9 - seven for the US Navy and three for the UK.
When the decision to acquire the US-manufactured aircraft was announced, there was some controversy around the amount of manufacturing that will be carried out in the UK. The recent contract announcement states that 1.6% of the manufacturing will