The US Navy’s multimission maritime aircraft P-8A Poseidon has been unveiled by Boeing and the US Navy.

The P-8A maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft is a long-range anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence aircraft capable of broad-area, maritime and littoral operations.

As the successor for the Navy’s P-3C Orion aircraft, the P-8A will provide greater payload capacity, significant growth potential, unprecedented flexibility and interoperability, and advanced mission systems, software and communications.

The official flight testing for the P-8A Poseidon will be carried out by the navy / Boeing team in 2010.

The navy is planning to purchase 117 P-8As with an initial operational capability scheduled for 2013.

The aircraft is being developed by Boeing-led industry team that includes CFM International, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Spirit AeroSystems and Geb Aviation.