JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A royal visitor arrived Wednesday afternoon at Naval Air Station Jacksonville.
News4Jax got a peek at the first United Kingdom P-8A Poseidon, which is the first of nine maritime patrol aircraft that Boeing is under contract to deliver to the Royal Air Force. And Jacksonville played a role.
The journey started Wednesday morning on the West Coast for the first P-8A Poseidon for the Royal Air Force. The brand-new plane left Boeing in Seattle and headed to Northeast Florida, where it arrived hours later at NAS Jacksonville.
Members of the Royal Air Force and the United States Navy were on hand to welcome the Royal Air Force's "Pride of Moray."
"It's a really good feeling," said Royal Air Force Wing Cmdr. James Hanson.
The commanding officer of 120 Squadron is in charge of the delivery of the U.K.'s first Boeing P-8A Poseidon -- the first of nine to come here before heading off to the U.K..
"We've got a whole load of training to do here with VP 30, which is the United States Navy Boeing P-8 Poseidon Conversion Squadron. We'll do some more work with them and then we'll start flying our aircraft back to the U.K.," Hanson said. "Our first aircraft goes back to the U.K. round about February of next year when we're all ready."
For the U.K., this has been years in coming. Some of the U.K. personnel have been at NAS Jacksonville for seven years.
"They've been working with VP 30, the conversion squadron here, and they've been building up a strong bond of comradeship, fellowship and trust. And we're very grateful to the United States Navy for the support that they've given us. They've really helped us get ahead of the game," Hanson said. "This is the start of a really, really good, long journey."
Royal Air Force Air Vice-Marshal Harv Smyth, Royal Air Force Air Officer Commanding Number 1 Group, flew the plane from Seattle, where he said the air was crisp Wednesday morning. He said he was thrilled to land in Jacksonville.
"A huge thanks to the team at Jacksonville who have hosted the Brits so well over these years. It was 2010 when we got rid of our maritime patrol aircraft, the Nimrods, then," Smyth said. "It's taken us nine years to get our new jets back on the go and throughout that whole period, the U.S. Navy very kindly hosted our crews."
The U.K. is expecting nine aircraft in total, and all will be delivered and ready to go by 2024.