Boeing’s Jacksonville facility reaches deployment milestone for Navy P-8A Poseidon warfare upgrades (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — A major upgrade Boeing executed in Jacksonville for the U.S. Navy’s P-8A Poseidon planes is reaching the early stages of deployment for the military.
Navy leaders announced Initial Operational Capability for the P-8A Poseidon Increment 3 Block 2 system, the modifications for which are entirely done at Boeing’s facility at Cecil Airport.
Boeing delivered its first P-8A Poseidon aircraft equipped with next-generation warfare upgrades from its maintenance hub at Cecil Airport nearly a year ago.
At its maintenance, repair and overhaul hangar in Cecil Airport, the aircraft manufacturing giant modified the planes to install a new system boosting the aircraft’s capabilities in tracking submarines and surface threats worldwide, according to an announcement from Boeing.
Dubbed Initial Operational Capability for the P-8A Poseidon Increment 3 Block 2 system, all of the work to modify the planes was done at Boeing Jacksonville, a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement to the Business Journal.
The work entailed attaching new sensors, advanced communications and improved combat systems on the maritime patrol aircraft.
After opening its upgraded maintenance, repair and overhaul facility for the P-8A Poseidon in 2024, Boeing has invested tens of millions of dollars into growing its Jacksonville footprint, moving forward with the construction of a component operations repair facility and an MRO facility for the KC-46A aircraft, which are used by the U.S. military for aerial refueling, cargo, passengers and aeromedical evacuation.
The latter, a $90 million project dubbed Boeing South Yard, is expected to open this year.