USN Retires the P-3
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
USN Retires the P-3
https://www.dvidshub.net/image/58270...nal-deployment
OAK HARBOR, Wash. (Oct. 10, 2019) Navy Region Northwest Fire and Emergency Services Battalion Three sprays arches of water as a P-3C Orion taxis the flight line onboard Naval Air Station Whidbey Island during a homecoming ceremony for the "Fighting Marlins" of Patrol Squadron (VP) 40, Oct. 9, 2019. The "Fighting Marlins" homecoming return marks the final active duty deployment of the P-3C Orion with the transition to the P-8A Poseidon as it's replacement closing out more than 60 years of the P-3C Orion's operational history within the U.S. Navy.
OAK HARBOR, Wash. (Oct. 10, 2019) Navy Region Northwest Fire and Emergency Services Battalion Three sprays arches of water as a P-3C Orion taxis the flight line onboard Naval Air Station Whidbey Island during a homecoming ceremony for the "Fighting Marlins" of Patrol Squadron (VP) 40, Oct. 9, 2019. The "Fighting Marlins" homecoming return marks the final active duty deployment of the P-3C Orion with the transition to the P-8A Poseidon as it's replacement closing out more than 60 years of the P-3C Orion's operational history within the U.S. Navy.
I believe the US Navy Reserves will still be flying the P-3 until @2023 out of Jacksonville and Whidbey Island. Not quite dead! but still a deserved retirement.
RAAF AP-3C's are all but retired and replaced by P-8's. Two EAP-3C's will remain in service until around 2022/23 when our Gulfstream MC-55A's arrive in the AISREW role. P-3's B's/C's/AP-C's have served the RAAF since 1968!
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A fine career for the P-3. 
not bad at all for what wasn't the most successful airliner of it's time
Several aircraft now in Museums here including one that is being kept airworthy with HARS Museum south of Sydney. Our P-3's were also used in A/Stan on an ISR role and as such the Australian War Memorial now hosts one of these.
I believe NOAA or whoever still operate a couple of heavily modified P-3s as hurricane hunters.
Wikip entry on the type:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockhe...#Civilian_uses
Wikip entry on the type:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockhe...#Civilian_uses
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
There are several nations till flying the F-4, and of course Iran still flys the F-14.
Doesn't change the fact the USN has retired it as a front line operational airframe. Used to be the Reserve/ANG would get hand-me-downs, increasingly, as with the P-8 and F-35, they also get the new kit.
Doesn't change the fact the USN has retired it as a front line operational airframe. Used to be the Reserve/ANG would get hand-me-downs, increasingly, as with the P-8 and F-35, they also get the new kit.
Still I don't know why Aussies get all tight about NZ defence?
We have a fit airframe on the line at least a couple of time a month - and sometimes a trained crew to fly them.
We have a fit airframe on the line at least a couple of time a month - and sometimes a trained crew to fly them.
