On August 9, 2021 the first of five Boeing P-8A Poseidon aircraft for Norway performed its maiden flight. The aircraft (YP151) took off at 10:03 a.m. Pacific time and flew for 2 hours, 24 minutes, reaching a maximum altitude of 41,000 feet during the flight from Renton Municipal Airport to Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington.

The first flight marked the next phase of the production cycle of this aircraft as it moved to the Installation and Checkout facility, where mission systems were to be installed and additional testing performed before final delivery to the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (NDMA) later in 2021.