Over the course of twenty days in March 2002, Navy veterans from coast to coast were riveted as reports trickled back to the United States regarding Operation Anaconda, the military’s fierce offensive against al-Qaida and the Taliban in southeast Afghanistan.
There, over an arid landlocked country, P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft that were originally designed to hunt submarines during the Cold War were making quite a splash.
The crew of the 116-foot-long turboprop plane did it all, using its cutting-edge sensors and thermal-sensitive cameras to do nearly everything from identifying safe sites for helicopter landings to locating small bands of insurgents hiding in caves.
During a key battle in the Shah-e-Kot Valley, P-3 crews scouted the rugged valleys below and radioed in movement of enemy vehicles, allowing Special Operations Forces soldiers on the ground to set up strategic ambushes and save countless lives.
Not bad for a fifty-year-old sea-searching aircraft design on duty in the middle of the desert.
Over Troubled Waters
Entering service for the Navy in 1962, the Orion’s airframe was based on Lockheed’s Model 188 Electra commercial airliner. Though capable of reaching a top speed of 405 mph and a range of 5,570 miles, the Orion was designed to fly at low altitudes and slow speeds for long periods of time, making it an invaluable maritime patrol plane for the Navy, and used as a critical tool in the successful blockade of Cuba during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
The aircraft’s sensor suite, which included the distinctive Magnetic Anomaly Detection boom at the end of the fuselage allowed the P-3 crew to monitor Soviet sub activity around the world. Over time, the P-3 slowly evolved in to more than just a submarine hunter. It became an ideal platform for introducing new reconnaissance and sensor technologies, including special imaging radar, low-light long-range video cameras and Lockheed’s first digital, computer-based, software-controlled avionic systems. These technologies could be considered as the grandfather of the avionics systems used in the F-117 Nighthawk and the F-22 Raptor.
Modified P-3s went on to be used both domestically and internationally for a variety of missions ranging from the study of acid rain, polar ice and wind shear to the Earth’s magnetic field, to search and rescue, to fisheries protection to the detection of drug smuggling and the monitoring of shipping lanes by US Customs and Border Protection officers.
Mid-Life Makeover
It was during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 that the P-3 first showed its potential as a land surveillance aircraft, monitoring Iraqi troop activities and providing battle-damage assessments on the ground. The introduction of new long-range video cameras for use over the skies of Bosnia allowed P-3s to provide real-time combat intelligence for NATO commanders, a tactical advantage that proved equally useful during ensuing U.S. campaigns.
Now starting its sixth decade of service, the P-3 shows no signs of flying off into the sunset any time soon. The addition of Lockheed Martin’s Mid-Life Upgrade kit replaces the aircraft’s outer wings and horizontal wing stabilizers with new technology, giving this hunter an estimated 15,000 additional flight hours and up to twenty-five years’ continued service over land and sea.
Sources and Additional Reading
- Cooper, Curt. “U.S. Navy’s Greatest Cold War Hunter.” http://www.tactical-life.com/online/tactical-weapons/us-navys-greatest-cold-war-hunter/, accessed 29 July 2012.
- Rhodes, Jeff and Stephanie Stinn. “Happy Birthday, Orion: Lockheed Martin Celebrates Milestone Birthday.” Planeside, 2012: Issue 2.
- Skaarup, Harold. California Warplanes. iUniverse. April 2012.
- The Washington Times. “Navy’s P-3 Orion aircraft played prominent role in Afghanistan.” April 2, 2002.