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Remember about a couple of years ago when news of drug smugglers using so called “semi-submersibles” was all the rage? Those craft can almost completely submerge themselves to evade interception. Still, the vessels don’t go all the way underwater and can be spotted from ships or aircraft and have been intercepted a number of times. Since then, the high seas cat-and-mouse game between governments and drug smugglers has become more intense now that the cartels have built actual submarines. It sounds like these vessels are capable of staying underwater long enough to warrant the use of P-3 subhunters to find...

The U.S. Navy took delivery in January of 10 newly configured P-3C Orions installed with an upgraded acoustic system — the Acoustic Receiver Technology Refresh (ARTR) — that enhances the aircraft’s ability tenfold to receive and analyze sonobuoy data, a basic P-3C mission requirement. The upgrades will help bridge the technology gap between the Orion and the service’s next generation maritime patrol and anti-sub warfare (ASW) aircraft, the P-8A Poseidon, creating a more common and efficient fleet. The Navy also is establishing common signal processing code and hardware for the two fleets. The acoustic technology upgrades are vital for the...

The first of a dozen anti-submarine aircraft are set to go into service in Taiwan next year, local media reported Sunday, as East Asian governments look to counter an increasingly assertive China. Washington agreed in 2007 to sell the refurbished P-3C Orion patrol aircraft, along with three non-operational machines for spares, and "the first ones will be delivered beginning next year," the Taipei-based China Times said. "The surveillance range of Taiwan's anti-submarine fleet will expand tenfold after the P-3Cs join the navy," it quoted an unnamed military source as saying. Taiwan's navy declined to comment on the report. The P-3C...

Singapore has shown an interest in possibly acquiring several of the US Navy's surplus P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, according to the type's former manufacturer, Lockheed Martin. "They have issued a letter of request to look at P-3s," says Mark Jarvis, Lockheed's director, design and production for P-3 programmes. Singapore's interest could be for around four or five aircraft, he believes, with these to perhaps draw on the configuration of the 12 secondhand Orions due to be delivered to Taiwan from 2012. Singapore - which currently operates five Fokker 50 maritime patrol aircraft - could potentially acquire surplus Orions as...

The first P-3 Orion aircraft modified by Airbus Military for the Brazilian Air Force was inspected today by Brazilian Minister of Defence, Nelson Jobim, during his official visit to Spain. The aircraft is the first of a fleet of nine which will undergo a complete systems modernization programme, including the installation of Airbus Military´s Fully Integrated Tactical System (FITS). As well as FITS, the aircraft will benefit from a powerful new suite of mission sensors, communications systems, and upgraded cockpit avionics. The engines are being updated and, depending on the condition of each individual aircraft, the structures are being renovated...

Can nothing kill the P-3C Orion? By Stephen Trimble on November 10, 2010 I am reporting in next week's magazine that a subset of the P-3C Orion fleet will outlive its planned retirement by the Boeing 737-based P-8A Poseidon. I'll post the link to the article here when it's available. I consider the story a testament to the P-3C's record of freakish survival skills. Adapted from the doomed, 1950s-era Lockheed L-188 Electra airliner, the Orion first survived its predecessor's untimely demise in the regional airliner market. It should have been replaced by the Lockheed P-7 in the early 1990s, but...

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...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has received from Lockheed Martin its first mid-life upgrade P-3 Orion patrol aircraft, the company announced. The upgrade replaced the patrol craft's outer wings, center wing lower surface and horizontal stabilizer with new production components. "We are excited about our partnership with Customs and Border Protection," said Ray Burick, Lockheed Martin P-3 Programs vice president, "and we are committed to providing them with modernization enhancements to sustain the P-3 for decades to come. The MLU integrates well with our 10-year site and depot P-3 Fleet Maintenance Program, now under way with CBP." Lockheed Martin said...

LAST SUNDAY, Iran hanged five Kurdish dissidents, including a 28-year-old woman, who said they had been tortured into confessing to charges of terrorism. On Monday it announced that the Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who covered last year's fraudulent presidential election for Newsweek, had been sentenced in absentia to 74 lashes and 13 years in prison. This is probably just the beginning of a brutal wave of repression aimed at preventing the opposition Green Movement from rallying as next month's anniversary of the election approaches. But on Saturday, Brazilian President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva will arrive in Tehran in yet...

ARLINGTON, Va. - A lawsuit which could delay the Virginia HOT lanes project will go forward, a U.S. District Court ruled Thursday. The suit, filed by the Arlington County Board, says the high occupancy toll lanes planned for a stretch of Interstate 95/395 are intended to benefit mainly rich, white, suburban and rural residents of Stafford and Spotsylvania counties. The new toll road is planned to run between Spotsylvania County and the D.C. line. Arlington says the added traffic would come at the expense of the county's diverse urban population and constitute a violation of civil rights. "We'll find out...

South Korea's navy will deploy eight more advanced maritime patrol aircraft this year to guard against any military threats from North Korea or elsewhere, the navy said on Monday. The first of eight refurbished P-3CK aircraft from the United States will be delivered to a naval unit on Tuesday, a navy statement said. The countries' disputed Yellow Sea border has been tense since a firefight last November left a North Korean patrol boat in flames. In late January the North fired some 370 shells into the sea near the borderline. Last week it announced new naval firing zones off its...

Chavez says Venezuela jets intercepted U.S. plane CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez said he ordered two F-16 jets to intercept a U.S. military plane that twice entered Venezuelan skies on Friday, but Washington said none of its planes flew over the South American country's airspace. Brandishing a photo of the plane, which he described as a P-3, Chavez said the overflight was the latest violation of Venezuelan airspace by the U.S. military from its bases on the Netherlands' Caribbean islands and from neighboring Colombia. "They are provoking us ... these are warplanes," he said. Chavez said the F-16s escorted...

Prince William County decided not to join Arlington County in its lawsuit against high-occupancy toll lanes on Interstates 95 and 395, citing what it characterizes as race-baiting and class warfare in the suit. The county considered joining the suit because it shared concerns about the HOT lanes’ proceeding without a proper environmental study and their effect on traffic, but Board Chairman Corey Stewart, R-At large, said the board unanimously agreed Arlington’s suit raised too many concerns. “The board had a closer look at the suit and there are allegations in there about Pierce Homer, the secretary of transportation, and about...

The Texas Department of Transportation is pulling the last plug on the Trans-Texas Corridor, Gov. Rick Perry's embattled plan to build a toll-road network across the state. The agency said earlier this year it was scaling down the project and dropping the name "Trans-Texas Corridor." Now, transportation officials say it's fully dead. Transportation Commissioner Bill Meadows told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of the decision in a report posted online Tuesday. The news comes a day after Perry's Republican primary opponent, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, secured the coveted endorsement of the powerful Texas Farm Bureau — a vocal opponent of the...

A U.S. navy patrol plane was destroyed Tuesday when it overshot the runway while landing at a base north of the Afghan capital, but none of the crew was seriously hurt, the U.S. military said.

TEXARKANA — The company selected to design Interstate 69 has revealed plans to also implement the world’s first air rail freight system in the corridor, possibly starting in Texarkana, Texas. “You [Texarkana ] have railroads here, you already have an interstate, bringing I-69 is another interstate, you’ve got Oklahoma, you’ve got I-49,” said Gary Kuhn, senior project manager for Zachary American Infrastructure. “This is what the logistics world likes to see — that opportunity to go from one mode to another very efficiently.” In a presentation to the Wilbur Smith Rotary Club, Kuhn said the freight shuttle is a new...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has placed his support behind a costly high-speed rail system in California. Schwarzenegger told NBC11 he wants California to lead the way in transporting commuters across the state at near-record speeds while reducing global warming at the same time. Critics have said the state's proposed high-speed rail system is too costly and too good to be true, NBC11's Mike Luery reported. On the very spot where the Transcontinental Railroad was established nearly 140 years ago, Schwarzenegger told Luery that a less-than-three-hour trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles represents the type of progress that...

State highway officials said Wednesday that the first step in carrying out their decision to build a controversial toll road along the present U.S. 59, and not through farm and ranch land, is to get federal approval. Although no federal funding has been sought for the Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor, the Texas Department of Transportation is bound by federal environmental law. The project has generated thick volumes about its likely impact on the natural environment and the communities in its path. The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) is expected to undergo public review late this year and then get sent to...

Earth Tech Inc. has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract to provide environmental services to Central Texas Highway Constructors, LLC (CTxHC). Earth Tech, the lead planning and engineering firm for Cintra Zachry, LP on the Trans-Texas Corridor 35 (TTC-35) project, was approved by CTxHC for environmental work on Segments 5 and 6 of the SH 130 highway project. The SH 130 project is the first facility to be developed under the TTC-35 Comprehensive Development Agreement. An integral part of the preparation for highway construction, the project includes site assessments, hazardous materials clean-ups, remediation, and other environmental services. A private-public partnership,...

Texas Department of Transportation that claims it has no money for roads uses $20 million in gas tax funds to build a park. Woodall Rodgers ParkThe Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation announced yesterday that the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) would hand over $20 million in gas tax funds to help build a 5.2 acre park near downtown Dallas. The $67 million park is intended to serve as a model public-private partnership with a restaurant, a children's playground and a dog park. It will have no roads. "The park... will connect Uptown, Downtown and the Arts District, and is expected to...