The US Navy plans on keeping about 40 P-3C Orion maritime surveillance aircraft online years after the fleet’s scheduled shutdown in 2019 due to the cancellation of the EPX spy plane program, a Lockheed Martin official has said.
The Navy had been planning on phasing out all P-3s by 2019 to make way for the follow-on P-8A Poseidon, scheduled to begin joining the fleet in 2013.
However, the P-3C program office announced at Lockheed’s annual P-3 international operators support conference in Marietta, GA, that the Navy intends to fly special mission P-3Cs beyond that because there is no replacement for them since EPX was cancelled earlier this year, Ray Burick, Lockheed’s vice-president for the P-3C program, told Inside the Navy on October 28.
“They anticipate flying a handful of airplanes, about 40 planes, specifically special mission airplanes...well beyond 2019 because there’s no fundamental replacement program,” Burick said.
“The Navy cannot replace special mission airplanes unless they’ve demonstrated a fully operational platform.”