South Korea’s navy has commenced operations with the Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft.
The main focus of the aircraft will be detecting underwater threats posed by North Korea, according to naval officials quoted by official news agency Yonhap.
The aircraft first arrived in South Korea in 2024, with air and maintenance crew undergoing training locally. Prior to this, they trained with US Navy (USN) colleagues in the USA.
Seoul ordered six P-8As in 2020 through the US government’s Foreign Military Sales process.
South Korea is the fourth Asia-Pacific nation to operate the 737-derivative, following Australia, India and New Zealand.
When the first three aircraft arrived at South Korea’s Pohang air base in June 2024, the navy said in addition to the type’s anti-submarine warfare role, the aircraft’s X-band radar “can detect sea targets up to hundreds of [kilometres] away”.
It also noted that the type is operated by the USN, which ensures interoperability with Seoul’s key ally.
South Korea’s navy also operates 15 Lockheed P-3s, of which eight are in the P-3C-III+ standard and seven in the more advanced P-3CK standard.
The force formerly had eight P-3CKs, but one example was lost in a 29 May crash May near Pohang, kill all four crew.
