NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, Patuxent River, Md. – P-8A Poseidon team members heard from Air Commodore Adam Brown, Director General Aerospace Maritime, Training and Surveillance, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during a recent visit to Florida, Maryland and Kansas.

Brown thanked the P-8A training systems team at Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division in Orlando for their work with Australian trainers Nov. 3 before heading to Naval Air Station Patuxent River for a bi-annual P-8A Steering Committee review of the P-8A cooperative program Nov. 4.

A cadre of P-8A leaders, including Brown and Rear Adm. CJ Jaynes, Program Executive Officer for Air Anti-Submarine Warfare, Assault and Special Mission Programs, signed the first Australian P-8A in production during a ceremony at a Spirit AeroSystems facility in Kansas Nov. 6. They were accompanied by Capt. Scott Dillon, Maritime, Patrol and Reconnaissance Program Manager and Wing Commander David Houghton, P-8A Joint Project Office Lead.

The U.S. Navy awarded a nearly $1.5 billion contract in August for the first four Australian planes and nine additional U.S. aircraft.  The RAAF P-8As included in the contract will join Australian forces in autumn 2016.