Posted on 05/16/2012 5:38:46 AM PDT by pabianice
Better to go with UAVs anyway. Manned patrol planes are obsolete.
I just don’t know about the switch from the P-3 to the P-7 (737). Two engines versus four, less endurance, no great increase in relevant performance.
A further updated P-3 with the latest avionics would seem to me to have been the better choice. I think politics played a role.
I stand corrected. The aircraft that beat out the Orion was the P-8, a maritime patrol version of the 737.
That’s a beautiful aircraft.
You are absolutely correct. I had the privilege to serve in five P-3 squadrons over 22 years and accumulated a little over 5000 flight hours in them, and they are magnificent assets. Wags occasionally referred to the as graceful gray gazelles. They aren’t that pretty, in my opinion,but they and their crews and maintainers served the nation well.
That will come as a surprise to P-8 crews while they refuel in flight, something they couldn't do in a P-3.
My years with VP-24 were some of the best of my life. My squadron was disesstablished by our last “progressive” president in 1994.
Yep. The P-8A (737-800) Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) has been in T&E at Pax River and will be operational later this year. Current plan is 84 airplanes between FY12-19 to replace 120 P-3Cs.
The squadron will be disestablished on Friday.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
But that would run counter to those who believe in antidisestablishmentarianism.
(I wanted to be able to say I used that in a sentence once. It even passed the spellcheck.)
Just so long as they’re being REPLACED and not disbanded.
Barry’s wunnerfull groovey safe ‘ol world seems none too safe for me.
The problem is P-3 airframes. They’ve had it. Designed, I believe, for 20,000 hours. Some have exceeded 60,000 and they are just worn out. The P-8 is a 737-800EX variant and no, it is not a good replacement for ASW work. It wull fly at 20,000 feet and do high altitude ASW. The problem is that high altitude ASW doesn’t work after the detection phase. The Navy wanted 156 P-8s. That is down to 107 officially. Won’t happen. Will end-up with one operational squadron on each coast plus some in HI — which will then be moved to Guam. Since 1991 we have basically abandoned ASW and AMW.
Aren’t they? For a tube with pointy ends it has always looked clean. The paddle props ooze power and reliability for some reason. Like a C-130, but pretty.
It’s kinda hard to go ‘low and slow’ with a 737.
Oh, how I remeber the fun of sneaking up on russian ‘trawlers’, and scaring the crapp out of them.
We considered damage due to salt water intake to be part of the job. That’s why God and the Navy gave us four engines.
>>Oh, how I remeber the fun of sneaking up on russian ‘trawlers’, and scaring the crapp out of them.
Me, too. Then the Kinder, Gentler Navy removed our 20 million candlepower spotlights. Man, did turning them on make Soviet crews crap their pants!
Once gain you are quite mistaken.
Me, too. Then the Kinder, Gentler Navy removed our 20 million candlepower spotlights. Man, did turning them on make Soviet crews crap their pants!
When I got to my squardon, we stil had a couple Willy vickers.
The great news was the bomb bays would hold more kegs than the P-2V’s for the run up to Kef.
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