You're reading: U.S. Poseidon aircraft arrive for Sea Breeze 2017 drills in Odesa

The United States Navy’s two Poseidon P-8 patrol anti-submarine aircraft have arrived in Odesa to participate in the Sea Breeze 2017 international naval exercises, which had began on July 10, the press service for the Ukrainian General Staff said.

“Two U.S. Poseidon P-8 state-of-the-art surveillance aircraft arrived to participate in drills in the city on July 11. It is the first visit of such hardware not only to Odesa, but to Ukraine. The Orion P-3 basic patrol aircraft, which had recently begun to be decommissioned and replaced with the Poseidon aircraft, participated in all previous Sea Breeze exercises,” the press service said.

According to information from open sources, the Boeing Poseidon P-8 is a patrol anti-submarine aircraft developed under the multimission maritime aircraft program to replace the Lockheed P-3 Orion. The aircraft’s production had begun in 2012, and its operations started in 2013. The Poseidon P-8 modification was developed for the U.S. Navy on the basis of the Boeing 737-800ERX. A total of 50 aircraft were supplies as part of the order for 122 of them as of the beginning of 2017.

The Sea Breeze 2017 international naval exercises began in Odesa on Monday, July 10. Capt. 1st rank Tate Westbrook, the U.S. supervisor of the exercises, said that a part of the drills will be held in the format of ‘free play’ and one of its elements will be training of an antisubmarine operation in the Black Sea.

Over 30 ships, boats, and service vessels, more than 25 aircraft and helicopters, as well as personnel from 16 countries in the total amount of above 3,000 servicemen, will participate in the exercises.

The exercises will take place in the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions, as well as northwestern part of the Black Sea, on July 10-23.