[hiramknight]

I flew on P-3c's for 4.5 years in the Navy, these are old aircraft. we had one in our inventory that was 20 years old in 1989 and as far as I know it's still in service. that's 36 years old. You can't compare the B-52's mission of flying in smooth air at 40,000 feet to the P3's mission of bouncing around for 12 hours at 500-1000 feet. It beats you up pretty good. These aircraft have had it. They're too dangerous to fly anymore and need to be replaced if the navy is going to continue with this mission. This is a safety issue. It's deliberately putting our servicemen in harmsway.

[Walkingfeather]

Can a UAV of considerable size replace this mission?

[Moonman62]

I flew on P-3c's for 4.5 years in the Navy, these are old aircraft. we had one in our inventory that was 20 years old in 1989 and as far as I know it's still in service. that's 36 years old.

But didn't the P3 get a recent kill against a Chinese fighter?

[Long Cut]

". It's deliberately putting our servicemen in harmsway."

I wouldn't say it's deliberate...we've been screaming for new machines since I've been in. That's coming up on 13 years.

Maintinence is currently a nightmare. So is getting missions done, as the electronics and internal systems are beginning to break more and more.