From sea to sky: Germany boosts maritime patrol with P-8, weighs airborne early warning options
October 2, 2025
Germany has taken delivery of its first Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, marking a key moment in the renewal of its long-range surveillance and anti-submarine warfare capability. But while the Poseidon strengthens the navy’s hand at sea, Berlin is still grappling with a different but equally urgent question: how to secure its future in airborne early warning.
Germany’s Boeing P-8 Poseidon is handed over in Seattle
The first German P-8A, tail number 63+01, was formally handed over at a ceremony in Seattle before entering final checks with the Bundeswehr procurement authority. It will soon join Naval Air Wing 3 “Graf Zeppelin” at Nordholz, replacing the navy’s ageing P-3C Orions.
Germany has ordered eight Poseidons in total, with five signed for in 2021 and a further three added in 2023 using special defence funding. Deliveries will continue into 2026.
Designed on the 737 airframe, the P-8 combines long range and endurance with advanced mission systems. Its role set includes anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence and surveillance, and search and rescue. Equipped with high-speed data links and an open-architecture mission suite, the Poseidon can plug directly into NATO networks and share a common maritime picture across the alliance.
For the German Navy, the aircraft represents a generational step change. The P-3Cs it replaces were increasingly costly to maintain and limited in their availability, creating gaps in patrol coverage at a time when the Baltic and North Sea are under sharper strategic pressure.
Contemplating airborne early warning solutions
While the P-8 strengthens Germany’s eyes and ears at sea, it does not address the country’s needs in the air domain. For decades, NATO’s Boeing E-3A Sentry fleet, based at Geilenkirchen in Germany, has provided the alliance’s airborne early warning and battle management. But those aircraft, built in the 1980s, are nearing retirement.
NATO has agreed to acquire the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail as the successor, with entry into service planned around 2031. While the E-3s aren’t slated to retire until 2035, they suffer with limited readiness, and despite Germany contributing hosting and personnel to look after the aircraft, it is still beholden to NATO if it wants to dispatch one.
To shore up its AEW capabilities and as part of increased defence spending under NATO, Germany is looking for its own solution. Saab’s GlobalEye, based on the Bombardier Global 6000/6500 jet and fitted with the Erieye ER radar, has emerged as a frontrunner. The system offers wide-area surveillance of both air and maritime domains and has already been ordered by Sweden, the UAE and others.
GlobalEye would not provide quite the same battle-management heft as a dedicated AWACS platform, but it could give Germany a sovereign early warning and control asset in the critical years before NATO’s E-7s arrive.
Does buying its own AEW make sense for Germany?
The debate is politically charged. Germany must weigh the cost of buying a small GlobalEye fleet against simply relying on NATO or allied assets until the Wedgetails are ready. Industrial considerations also come into play: a GlobalEye purchase would benefit Swedish industry, while an E-7 pathway could align more closely with transatlantic partners.
Operationally, the key challenge is ensuring interoperability. Whatever solution Berlin chooses must share data seamlessly with NATO command systems, just as the P-8s are designed to do on the maritime side. Crew training, basing, sustainment, and the number of platforms required to provide continuous coverage are all under scrutiny.
Nevertheless, possessing a national AEW fleet puts Germany alongside countries like the UK with its incoming E-7 Wedgetails, Sweden with its GlobalEye, and France, which is preparing for the introduction of the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye.
Taken together, the first Poseidon delivery and the ongoing AEW debate highlight a central theme: Germany is in the midst of a broad surveillance modernisation. The country has learned hard lessons about the risk of overreliance on ageing fleets and the importance of national contributions to NATO’s collective defence.
The P-8A handover is a visible step forward, putting the German Navy on a par with other leading NATO maritime patrol operators such as the US, UK and Norway. But the airborne early warning decision looms just as large, with long-term implications for Germany’s role in managing Europe’s skies.
For now, Berlin can celebrate the Poseidon’s arrival. The next test will be whether it can match that progress in the air domain, ensuring its forces are as well prepared to watch the skies as they are to patrol the seas.
