U.S. Navy Plans To Stop Buying P-8 Poseidon Sub Hunters Despite Growing Undersea Threat (From Forbes)

The P-8 Poseidon is the U.S. Navy’s only long-range aircraft for conducting anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare. The Navy says its has a validated warfighting requirement for 138 of the aircraft, but apparently it will fund no additional Poseidons beyond the 117 already sought. The program is on schedule and experiencing no cost overruns, but the Navy budget is stretched across too many missions in too many places. Cutting anti-submarine aircraft doesn’t seem to be the best bill-payer the Navy could come up with, though, because Russia and China are both investing in new undersea capabilities while the number of subs in the U.S. fleet is headed down. I have written a commentary for Forbes here.