Delivery of U.S.-built P-8 surveillance aircraft to Canada hit by further delays

The first Canadian P-8 aircraft is under construction at a Boeing plant in the U.S. Photo by DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENCE

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The delivery to the Canadian military of the U.S.-built fleet of P-8 surveillance aircraft has fallen three years behind schedule.

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But now DND has acknowledged even further delays.

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“Fourteen aircraft are expected to be delivered by 2030,” DND spokesman Nick Drescher Brown confirmed to the Ottawa Citizen. “Delivery of the first aircraft has been delayed from 2026 to 2027 due to a labour disruption at the Boeing Company in September 2024, which impacted production timelines for all future CP-8 Poseidon aircraft.”

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More than 33,000 Boeing machinists in the U.S. went out on strike from Sept. 13, 2024 to Nov. 4, 2024, a move that put a stop to production of a number of aircraft types, including the P-8.

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DND announced Feb. 19, 2026 in a social media post that production of Canada’s first CP-8A Poseidon had reached its first milestone with the joining of the fuselage and other major sections. The plane is being built at Boeing’s facility in Wichita, Kan.

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Drescher Brown said, in preparation for the delivery of the first CP-8A, work on upgrading facilities such as hangars is underway. “RCAF personnel have been embedded with the Royal Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the United States Navy to gain operational experience on the P-8A before its arrival in Canada,” he added. “This proactive approach mitigates many of the impacts of any aircraft delivery delays.”

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The new aircraft will replace the CP-140 Aurora fleet which will be retired in 2030, Drescher Brown added.

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The Liberal government’s decision in November 2023 to proceed with a sole-source purchase of the Boeing aircraft was seen as a significant win for U.S. industry and a boon for American aerospace workers.

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The RCAF leadership had rejected a made-in-Canada solution based on Bombardier aircraft as being too risky. The RCAF argued it needed to further integrate into the U.S. military system and the P-8 would allow seamless interoperability with the U.S. and other allies who fly the same plane.

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The Canadian government was also under pressure to pick the U.S. aircraft. At the time, the United States ambassador to Canada, David Cohen, had sent a letter to Liberal cabinet ministers urging them to move ahead with the sole-source deal.

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Cohen’s letter was sent to various ministers, including then Treasury Board president Anita Anand, whose organization was examining the funding proposal for the P-8 acquisition.

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Originally there was supposed to be an open competition to buy a new multi-mission aircraft to replace the RCAF’s Aurora CP-140 planes.