The United States’ State Department announced this week that it has approved the potential sale of Boeing’s P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to Canada. Although Canadian federal officials have stated that no decision has been made yet, that the U.S. is advancing the issue suggests that Canada continues to consider the Poseidon as its preferred choice to replace the aging fleet of CP-140 Auroras, despite protests from Bombardier. The Montreal-based manufacturer proposes an Aurora replacement based on its Global 6500 business jet, but to date it is only a proposal.
The U.S. State Department approval was for as many as 16 aircraft with a value of up to U$5.9 billion. The U.S. Senate would still need to approve a sale before it could take place, and this could be years away, depending on how long Canada’s procurement process takes after receiving the yet-to-occur go-ahead from Cabinet.
In addition to the U.S., India, Australia, the United Kingdom, Norway, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea and Germany have selected the Poseidon as their patrol aircraft.
An economic impact study performed by Doyletech Corporation of Nepean, Ontario stated that selecting the Poseidon, which is based on the 737NG airliner, would add greater than C$4 billion annually to the Canadian economy and support 14,000 jobs. Click here to see the full report.
An RCAF CP-140 Aurora was most recently in the news when sonar buoys were deployed from it early in the search for the Titan submersible that disappeared in the vicinity of the Titanic shipwreck in June. The buoys detected banging sounds that were later attributed to unrelated background noise.