On June 23, 2021, the German parliament approved the €1.4 billion purchase of five Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft for the German Navy to replace its current fleet of eight Lockheed P-3C Orions, making it the type's third European operator. Although the country commenced a modernisation programme to keep the Orions in service until 2035, this was cancelled last year on the grounds of large increases in the technical difficulties encountered; the type, currently operated by Marineflieger 3 out of Nordholz Naval Air Base, is now slated for withdrawal in 2025. With this in mind, Germany looked towards introducing several stop-gap platforms, including Airbus's A320M3A and C295 Persuader, the RAS-72 Sea Eagle from Rheinland Air Service, as well as the P-8A.
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