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Defence Industry Minister Melissa Price has announced a new sustainment contract to support an additional 40 jobs at RAAF Base Edinburgh to support the Royal Australian Air Force’s fleet of P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft.
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According to Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price, the deal is a six-year agreement that will see the company delivering support services to cutting-edge surveillance and response capabilities.
“The initial $300 million contract provides a highly experienced maintenance, engineering and logistics workforce to Defence,” Minister Price said.
“This will grow the workforce to over 160 from Boeing and their sub-contracted personnel from Airbus Australia Pacific, delivering vital services to the P-8A capability.”
Boeing added that the contract marks a shift into a "platform steward" role for the company, amalgamating three existing support agreements – one led by BDA and two that were subcontracted to Boeing Defense, Space and Security through the US Navy. The company said that the contracts cover maintenance, engineering and logistics, and increase BDA’s scope of works on the platform.
“Since standing up the interim sustainment contract in 2016, BDA has partnered with the RAAF to support the seamless introduction into service of this critical new capability, and ensured the highest levels of operational availability to enable the P-8A to perform its critical maritime patrol role,” said BDA director of commercial derivative a ircraft, Darryn Fletcher.
The continued industry partnership between Boeing and Airbus Australia Pacific has provided ongoing support to the P-8A Poseidon since July 2016. The model first entered into service with the RAAF later that year in November.
Featuring an extensive communications suite including radios and data links across VHF, UHF, HF and SATCOM, the P-8A has created high-value work within the Australian defence network since that introduction.
“Our Australian workforce is vital to the continued sustainment and upgrades which are critical to the Poseidon’s capabilities,” added Minister Price.
It was announced in December 2019 that the 12th P-8A Poseidon would be delivered to a newly upgraded airfield and support infrastructure at RAAF Base Edinburgh, having long acted as a strategic base for the fleet (as well as the earlier AP-3C Orion maritime patrol craft).
Air-to-air fuelling capabilities and interoperability with tanker aircraft such as the KC-30A make the aircraft well suited to patrolling Australia’s isolated Southern Ocean territories.
The move comes on the back of a $470 million investment into new and upgraded facilities and significant airfield works at RAAF Base Edinburgh to support the introduction of the P-8A aircraft.
“This has provided a boost to defence industry and created more than 120 jobs for South Australians,” Minister Price claimed at the time.
However, the addition of the most recent contract underscores the ongoing need for Australian industry capacity to serve these advanced aircraft and associated systems.
