Boeing Company has won a $1.9 billion contract to build 11 more P-8 maritime surveillance planes for the US Navy, according to the US Defense Department.

About three-quarters of the work on the P-8A Poseidon multi-mission maritime aircraft will be performed in Seattle, Washington under the US Navy contract, the Pentagon said in its daily contract digest.

This is the third batch of low-rate, production planes bought by the Navy, bringing the total number of P-8 planes under contract to 24, out of a total of 117 that the Navy plans to buy overall, Boeing spokesman Chick Ramey said.

Boeing has delivered 3 of the new production planes to a Navy air base in Jacksonville, Florida and will deliver two more by the end of the year, Ramey said.

The Navy began operational testing and evaluation of the planes several weeks ago, using three of six flight test airplanes built by Boeing as part of the initial development contract. It aims to start using the new planes operationally in 2013.

Boeing is building 8 P-8 planes for the Indian government, with the first one scheduled for delivery in January.

Source: Reuters