The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) chose Boeing [BA] to provide P-8A Poseidon maintenance training devices, the company said Wednesday.

The RAAF virtual trainers were purchased through the U.S. Navy and RAAF Cooperative Program to be used to train P-8A maintenance personnel, beginning in early 2018. The maintenance training devices provide interactive, high-fidelity simulations based on actual mission systems software while hardware-based trainers are full-scale replicas of aircraft components, Boeing said.

The U.S. Navy's P-8A Poseidon. Photo: Boeing
The U.S. Navy’s P-8A Poseidon. Photo: Boeing.

This is the company’s first international P-8 maintenance training order, with the equipment currently used by the U.S. Navy.

The P-8A Poseidon, based on the Boeing 737-800, operates as a long-range anti-submarine warfare (ASW), anti-surface warfare (ASuW), and an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft. It operates as a maritime patrol unit that can be outfitted with torpedoes, cruise missiles, bombs, and mines.

“This provides the RAAF with the ability to train its maintainers on more than 1,400 maintenance procedures using the Boeing provided suite of devices. RAAF maintainers will be able to practice at great length before they are required to perform maintenance on the actual P-8A aircraft,” Tom Wagner, the P-8 maintenance program manager at Boeing, said in a statement.

Earlier in 2016, the RAAF ordered a Boeing P-8 aircrew training system to train pilots and mission crews to operate the aircraft as well as its sensors, communications, and weapons systems. In February 2014, Australia approved the original acquisition of eight O-8A aircraft, with an option for four more. The original contract included training, spares, and support equipment.

Boeing plans to begin delivering the P-8As in late 2016, with the training system to arrive in 2018, the company said.