U.S. Navy aircrew and maintenance, BDA, and SRSPO personnel stand in front of the repaired P-8A as it gets ready to depart from RAAF Edinburgh.
NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, MD.: The Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft Program (PMA-290) and the P-8A program team planned and executed several Aircraft on Ground (AOG) events in recent months. The successful AOG events were completed outside of the continental U.S. (OCONUS) with cooperative partnerships between the U.S. Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), and the contractual relationship between RAAF Surveillance and Response System Program Office (SRSPO) with Boeing Defence Australia (BDA).
An AOG occurs when an aircraft incurs an incident outside of the normal fleet repair capability. A U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon incurred structural damage away from the continental U.S. (CONUS) that required depot level repairs to be airworthy again. The cooperative teams worked together, leveraging their relationships and previous experience in a simulated environment with confidence.
In 2023, a virtual, scripted and basic simulated AOG event between P-8A partners was successfully walked through. In July 2025, another simulated event was executed during the Australian hosted Exercise Talisman Sabre. Using a U.S. Navy P-8A fleet aircraft participating in Exercise Talisman Sabre, aircrew, maintainers, RAAF personnel, local BDA personnel, U.S.-based Fleet Support Team (FST), and PMA-290 personnel worked through a more robust simulated structural damage event.
During the July AOG simulation, the cooperative team practiced and built upon what was learned in 2023 to receive the appropriate permissions and work through necessary processes to execute a U.S. Navy P-8A AOG in United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM). The event addressed a more complex challenge than usual: How do we leverage our cooperative partner when a damaged INDOPACOM asset requires assessment and repair quickly? The result of the second event was a thorough, step-by-step walk through of a Task Order issuance, simulation of temporary repairs, parts ordering, issuance of an Interim Flight Clearance (IFC), security procedures, cost recovery process understanding and, ultimately, BDA issuance of a Certificate of Conformance (CoC).
Commander Task Force 72 was engaged in the process providing insight into custody limitations and squadron expectations. Concurrently, the Regional Sustainment Framework effort within INDOPACOM was garnering additional support across the Department.
Written lessons learned from the 2025 Exercise Talisman Sabre AOG simulated event were barely dry when a deployed squadron in Guam experienced an event which required physical repair to their P-8A wingtip.
This became an unexpected, yet fortuitous opportunity to execute the teaming between PMA-290, RAAF, and BDA in a real-life AOG scenario. PMA-290, with concurrence from U.S. Navy leadership, SRSPO, and BDA, leveraged the 2025 Exercise Talisman Sabre lessons learned and activated protocols for a deployed asset AOG. Temporary repairs were immediately made to the P-8A. It was then flown to RAAF Base Edinburgh for BDA to make the permanent repairs.
An enormous amount of coordination, parts ordering, and workload planning ensued. Executing a first of its kind repair, the P-8A was repaired in Australia, by BDA and, U.S. company, AAR Corp., returning to the Fleet before Thanksgiving.
“The immense partnership that exists between RAAF and the U.S. Navy made the entire evolution possible,’” said Molly Boron, PMA-290 deputy program manager. “The joint team welcomed the challenge of repairing a forward deployed, U.S. aircraft in Australia and returning it to permanent airworthiness in the shortest amount of time possible.”
The Australian Department of Defence, Boeing, AAR Corp., and U.S. Navy teams worked seamlessly together to produce an essential warfighting outcome. This event is a true example of successful cooperative partnerships.
This accomplishment demonstrates the potential benefit of interoperability with our allies and industry partners. The P-8A joint program continues to explore other opportunities for Regional Support Centres throughout the INDOPACOM area of responsibility and potential contested logistics environments, to enhance and enable our warfighters and capabilities.
PMA-290 manages the acquisition, development, support, and delivery of the Navy’s Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft.
