Orion upgrade gets the go-ahead

The Royal New Zealand Air Force signed a NZ$300 million contract late last year with L-3 Communications Integrated Systems in Greenville, Texas, to upgrade the sensors, avionics and communications systems of its six P-3K Orions. These had earlier undergone a structural refurbishment by Australian Aerospace at RAAF Base Richmond which has extended their lives for a further 15-20 years.

With the RNZAF's air combat wing now disbanded, the Orions are a critical part of New Zealand's defence capability. They undertake surveillance of New Zealand's EEZ and the Southern Ocean and meet the nation's South Pacific search and rescue obligations.

The P-3Ks are also an important contribution to New Zealand's defence relationships with Australia and its other Five Power Defence Arrangement (FPDA) partners - Singapore, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.

The present P-3K mission system is a combination of the original 1966-vintage sensor and processor suite and a partial upgrade completed in the early 1980s. These are obsolete and increasingly difficult to support, to the extent that aircraft availability is now suffering.

The P-3K's communications and navigation systems also need to be upgraded to avoid looming obsolescence and comply with evolving international air traffic regulations. And it also lacks self-protection capability against man-portable, IR-guided surface-air missiles, a deficiency which was highlighted to both the RNZAF and RAAF in recent deployments of their respective P-3 variants to Iraq and the Gulf area.

L-3 will upgrade the P-3Ks' mission, communications and navigation systems; the aircraft will be equipped with a Wescam MX-20 FLIR system and the same IAI Elta EL/M-2022 surveillance radar as the RAAF AP-3Cs. L-3 will modify and test the first aircraft at Greenville and Safe Air Limited in Blenheim will complete the five remaining aircraft and install the ground support systems. Universal Avionics Systems Corporation will provide the new flight management subsystem and Rockwell Collins the communication subsystem. The first upgraded aircraft is expected to be in service in 2008, with fleet modernisation complete in 2010.

However, the P-3K upgrade program will probably be extended to cover the integration of Electronic Warfare Self-Protection (EWSP) systems and a basic anti-ship strike capability.

The RNZAF notes that some 90 per cent of all aircraft lost in combat over the past 15 years have fallen to IR-guided MANPADS systems; the P-3Ks have no EWSP at all and the RNZAF has earmarked about NZ$18 million to cover the acquisition of an EWSP suite which will be installed as an extension of L-3's avionics upgrade program. At this time no EWSP suite has been selected and the contract amendment hasn't been negotiated. A variant of the RAAF EWSP suite (see main article) can't be ruled out for interoperability and supportability reasons, however.

Similarly, the RNZAF has allocated NZ$25 million to acquire and integrate an anti-ship missile for the P-3K. In the absence of the RNZAF's now-retired A-4K Skyhawks, which were armed with Raytheon AGM-65 Maverick air-surface missiles, the Ministry says, "The inability to take immediate action against surface threats limits the P-3's ability to provide force protection for New Zealand naval vessels, particularly the frigates and, in future, the [Navy's recently-ordered] MRV [Multi-Role Vessel]."

The modification required to enable the P-3K to launch anti-ship missiles is relatively straightforward and could be done during routine maintenance once the upgraded sensors and mission system are installed. The RNZAF plans a study in the near future to determine the appropriate weapons fit for the P-3K; however, as the RNZN's five SH-2G(NZ) Super Seasprite helicopters are also armed with AGM-65 Mavericks for the maritime strike role it seems likely these missiles will also be adapted to arm the P-3Ks - the tiny budget for this project leaves few other options.

By Gregor Ferguson, Adelaide