LONDON — Britain and the US have pledged to work closer together on P-8A maritime patrol aircraft operations in the North Atlantic, the two nations announced Thursday.
A declaration to better coordinate maritime patrol aircraft operations and support in the region was signed in London by British Defence Procurement Minister Harriett Baldwin and her US counterpart, Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work. It is only a declaration of intent at the moment.
A statement issued by the two officials said they "plan to cooperate closely on operation of their P-8A aircraft in the North Atlantic to ensure a coherent approach to MPA activity."
"The declaration provides a new opportunity to maximize value for money for the taxpayer and continue to strengthen U.K.-U.S. interoperability and to pursue efficiencies in operations and support, including at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, [the British P-8A base]," according to the statement.
"The United States is our pre-eminent ally in global defense and collective security. This declaration is further evidence of how our two countries continue to cooperate and build mutual security, particularly in the North Atlantic region," Baldwin was quoted as saying in the statement.
The announcement of closer engagement by the two nations in the North Atlantic comes just ahead of Friday's visit to Washington by British Prime Minister Theresa May for her meeting with the new US president, Donald Trump.
Trade will be one of the major items on the agenda, but May is also likely to set out a number of areas where continued close US-UK cooperation is vital, including strengthening defense and security cooperation bilaterally and through NATO.
Britain is buying nine of the Boeing-built patrol jets with the first aircraft scheduled to arrive in 2019.
The British are rebuilding their fleet of maritime patrol aircraft after axing the capability in 2010. In recent years, they have increasingly had to rely on the US and other NATO allies to help search for rising numbers of Russian submarines said to be watching for Royal Navy ballistic missile boats exiting from the naval base at Faslane, Scotland.
The move closer on North Atlantic surveillance is part of an expanding effort to counter a growing Russian submarine threat said by analysts and others to be approaching Cold War levels.
The increase in North Atlantic cooperation is not just confined to the UK and US either. Late last year, Norway and Britain signed an agreement to work closer on training and sharing P-8A capabilities. The Nordic nation last year announced it was buying five of the jets to replace its aging Lockheed Martin P-3Cs.
Earlier this month, Defense News reported that top officials from the three nations were seeking to reenergize a maritime surveillance alliance that had faded since the end of the Cold War.
In a Dec. 4 interview, Work, of the US Defense Department, termed the expanding relationship between the three P-8A operators as "really, really exciting ... it just opens up a whole new level of possibilities for us to in the future do collaborative and coordinated operations."
Andrew Chuter is the United Kingdom correspondent for Defense News.
