ILA 2026: Germany Navy stands up Poseidon MMA capability

The first P-8A Poseidon to be delivered to Germany was displayed at the ILA Berlin Airshow 2026. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)

Germany is standing up its new Boeing P-8A Poseidon capability, with three of the eight contracted multimission maritime aircraft (MMA) now with the German Naval Aviation (Marineflieger) at Nordholz Air Base.

With the first aircraft 63+01 (the Bundeswehr has assigned 63 to the P-8A, with 01 denoting the first such aircraft) arriving into Berlin from Boeing's Seattle production facility in November 2025, it and two further aircraft that have since been received are being brought up to an operational status by Naval Aviation Squadron 3 at Nordholz on the German North Sea coast.

“Naval aviation is of strategic importance to our security. It represents the capability to monitor large maritime areas quickly and effectively, to detect, track, and – if necessary – engage submarines. With the P-8A Poseidon, we finally have such a long-range, networked, and state-of-the-art airborne submarine hunter at our disposal once again,” Captain Broder Nielsen, Commander of the German Naval Aviation Command, said ahead of the ILA Berlin Airshow running from 10 to 14 June 2026.

The Marineflieger is contracted to receive eight Poseidon MMAs for EUR3.1 billion (USD3.6 billion), with the German government having increased the original order for five in November 2023. This increase is part of a wider uplift in the national defence budget, specifically the EUR100 billion (USD118 billion) Söndervermögen (special fund) uplift following Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The remaining five P-8As contracted for the Bundeswehr are to be delivered by 2029. German national media has previously said that more aircraft might be added for a final fleet of 12, although this has not been confirmed.