Deputy defense secretary tours Boeing P-8A Poseidon aircraft factory

Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work concluded his recent trip to the Pacific Northwest with a visit to Boeing’s final-assembly facilities in Renton, Washington, for the Boeing 737 and the derivative P-8A Poseidon, a military marine patrol aircraft.

“I went there to check on the two big wide-body efforts that they’re doing for us,” Work, who also inspected KC-46A Pegasus aircraft, which are derived from the Boeing 767 and assembled at a facility in Everett, Washington, said. “The test program is going really well.”

The P-8As are capable of long-range anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, maritime patrol, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and search and rescue, and build on existing maritime patrol aircraft.

“We get an enormous economy of scale because they’re building 42 (737s) a month and building to 57 a month ... so there’s a lot of interest from our allies," Work said.