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Boeing has awarded a subcontract to Lufthansa Technik to support the sustainment of the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s (RNZAF) future fleet of four P-8A aircraft.
The project involves leveraging commercial capabilities to improve readiness rates through the provision of Lufthansa Technik’s Total Component Support (TCS) — a comprehensive component services program for the 737 covering more than four hundred commercial common parts included in the configuration of the P-8A.
This is tipped to provide smaller fleets with improved access to necessary global supply chain inventory from the more than 4,000 currently operational 737 aircraft.
“Our collaboration with Lufthansa Technik is a strong example of how industry can work together to solve customer challenges and maintain high readiness rates,” Torbjorn (Turbo) Sjogren, Boeing vice president and general manager, government services, said.
“Our goal is to expand service offerings from a strategic German industry partner for additional P-8A customers to benefit.”
The TCS program is also expected to enable the RNZAF to reduce investment in commercial common parts and improve aircraft readiness by facilitating access to the Lufthansa Technik’s maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) global supply chain.
The subcontract comes after Boeing and Lufthansa Technik signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MOU) in 2021 to support Germany’s P-8A Poseidon fleet — expanded to a three-party agreement with ESG Elektroniksystem- und Logistik-GmbH in 2022.
“Lufthansa Technik is a longstanding partner with a long history of supporting Boeing aircraft around the world,” Michael Haidinger, president of Boeing in Germany, added.
“This new contract is a clear demonstration of our commitment to German industry and how we partner across the Atlantic and globally, shaping meaningful partnerships that ensure continued economic and industrial growth in Germany.”
As part of Boeing’s Performance-Based Logistics (PBL) program, Lufthansa Technik is also responsible for providing hardware support to the Italian fleet of Boeing KC-767A tankers.
“As a renowned expert for Special Mission aircraft and a leading maintenance, repair and overhaul provider with decades of experience in servicing commercial Boeing 737s, we are delighted to soon start servicing New Zealand’s Poseidon fleet,” Michael von Puttkamer, vice president special aircraft services at Lufthansa Technik, said.
“The strong partnership with Boeing enables us to offer the best possible service level over the entire life cycle of the aircraft.
“We are very much looking forward to further cooperation with our partners in Germany and beyond.”
The award of the subcontract comes just weeks after Boeing announced the delivery of the RNZAF’s first P-8A Poseidon aircraft, welcomed at a ceremony at the Museum of Flight in Blenheim.
This came just four years after the US State Department approved the New Zealand government’s request for four of the maritime patrol aircraft.
The three remaining aircraft are scheduled to be delivered in 2023.
The P-8 is billed as a long-range anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, capable of broad-area, maritime and littoral operations.
New Zealand’s prospective P-8A Poseidon fleet — to be based out of Royal New Zealand Air Force Base Ohakea — is set to replace its existing fleet of six P-3K2 Orions.
