It’s going to be a busy Farnborough, defense-wise. The UK will confirm orders for Boeing’s P-8 Poseidon maritime patroller and AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopter here today. The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter will open the show in a formation flypast with the Red Arrows, and the Embraer KC-390 is making its international debut with an appearance in the static park. Aerospace companies big and small will be displaying their wares and touting for military business in the halls and chalets.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and senior military officers were scheduled to take a short flight in the P-8 this morning. The order for an expected nine aircraft could be worth over $3 billion to Boeing and more than a dozen subcontractors. The cost is controversial, and so is the UK Ministry of Defence’s decision to forgo a formal competition. But the new fleet of maritime surveillance jets will plug a gap in the UK’s defenses caused by the retirement of the Nimrod fleet in 2010.

The AH-64 order could also be controversial, if most of the work is to be done in the U.S. The deal will likely be worth $3 billion, for the remanufacture of an expected 50 helicopters from the UK’s existing Apache fleet. Those aircraft were built in the UK at what was the Westland Helicopters facility at Yeovil. But it could be less costly and more efficient to leverage the high production rate at Boeing’s Mesa, Arizona factory for the U.S. Army and other foreign customers.

The F-35 has been wowing the crowds at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT), RAF Fairford, this past weekend. Three conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) F-35As and three short-takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35Bs were flown there from U.S. bases on June 29/30. Lockheed Martin is mounting a major publicity drive to affirm the operational status of the low-observable jet, and its value to the international partners, especially the UK. The extensive schedule of F-35 media briefings and private discussions that started at RIAT will continue here, starting today with a press conference featuring the top U.S. defense acquisition official and the head of the F-35 program in the Pentagon.

Unfortunately, show-goers will not see a real F-35 on the ground here. A single F-35B will fly to and from Fairford each day to perform a flying display that will include a transition to and from the hover at 100 feet, but not a vertical landing. Because of the potential for damage to standard runways by the heat generated and deflected downwards by the aircraft’s 40,000-pound- thrust F135 engine, that can only be done on specially-formulated hard concrete, or specially-laid aluminum matting. At the suggestion of this AIN editor, the U.S. Marine Corps deployed the matting to Fairford. But it has not been installed here at Farnborough.

The KC-390 arrived here last Thursday from Portugal, one of two European countries whose industries have a subcontracting role on the twin-engine transport. The Czech Republic is the other, and the Brazilian jet will fly there after the show, and to a few other countries for demonstrations. Only the Brazilian air force has placed a firm order so far—for 28. Embraer and Boeing are due to announce an extension of their marketing agreement on the KC-390 here today.