Lockheed Martin delivers P-3C surveillance jets to Pak

[RPK]

Pak gets P-3C maritime surveillance jets from Lockheed Martin

Islamabad: American aviation major Lockheed Martin has delivered to Pakistan two P-3C maritime surveillance aircraft that were upgraded under the US government's Foreign Military Sales programme.


Lockheed Martin delivered the first plane in October last year and the second one was handed over to the US Naval Air Station at Jacksonville in Florida on January 7 for subsequent transfer to Pakistan, the company said.

The firm is upgrading seven P-3C aircraft from Pakistan. It will also refurbish their mission systems and provide maintenance under a 2006 contract from the US Navy.

The aircraft support anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare missions and will enhance Pakistan's ability to conduct surveillance in littoral and deep-water environments.

The aircraft are designed to have a single integrated tactical picture of the space around them by drawing on data from sensors and information from other platforms.

"These aircraft incorporate a variety of enhanced features, including communications, electro-optic and infrared systems, data management, controls and displays, mission computers and acoustic processing," said Mike Fralen, director for Lockheed Martin's mission systems and sensors maritime surveillance programmes.

The P-3C is Pakistan's primary maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft. Its roles include anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, surveillance and reconnaissance, economic zone patrol, airborne early warning and electronic warfare.

 

[bengalraider]

Lockheed Martin Delivers First Two Upgraded P-3C Maritime Surveillance Aircraft for Pakistan

09:38 GMT, January 15, 2010 EAGAN, MINN. | Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] recently delivered two of seven upgraded P-3C maritime surveillance aircraft for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan under the U.S. Government's Foreign Military Sales program.

The most recent aircraft delivery occurred on Jan. 7 to the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla., for subsequent transfer to Pakistan. Lockheed Martin delivered the first plane in October 2009.

Lockheed Martin is upgrading the P-3Cs' aircraft and mission systems and providing maintenance under a 2006 contract from the U.S. Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command. The aircraft support anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare missions and will enhance Pakistan’s ability to conduct maritime surveillance in littoral and deep-water environments. The aircraft are designed to have a single integrated tactical picture of the battle space, drawing upon data from aircraft sensors and information from other platforms.

“These aircraft incorporate a variety of enhanced features including communications, electro-optic and infrared systems, data management, controls and displays, mission computers and acoustic processing,” said Mike Fralen, director for Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Sensors' maritime surveillance programs.

The P-3 is the primary maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft operated by the U.S. Navy and 16 allied countries. Its roles include anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, surveillance and reconnaissance, search and rescue, drug interdiction, economic zone patrol, airborne early warning and electronic warfare.

defence.professionals | defpro.com

This aircraft is the reason i was against the poseidon in the first place with the upgrades the PN shall be getting pretty much the same plane(if you discount the turboprop vs the Turbojet)as the IN, the PN shall pretty much know what we can do and cannot do . This is also the reason we should not go in for the F-16IN.

 

[Quickgun Murugan]

This aircraft is the reason i was against the poseidon in the first place with the upgrades the PN shall be getting pretty much the same plane(if you discount the turboprop vs the Turbojet)as the IN, the PN shall pretty much know what we can do and cannot do . This is also the reason we should not go in for the F-16IN.

You have a better alternative suggestion for P-8I? No way a P-3C can be compared to a P-8 Poseidon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKQGjxFdMEo

 

[bengalraider]

You have a better alternative suggestion for P-8I? No way a P-3C can be compared to a P-8 Poseidon.

Without the upgrades there is no comparison , however with the upgrades there is still an edge on the side of the Poseidon but the edge is greatly reduced, how do you or i know that the next upgrade shall not give a PN Orion exactly the same electronics component as the IN Poseidon?

As for an alternative there is none available off the shelf except maybe a Airbus A319MMA, however we could easily Co-develop an MKI version of the BE-200 maritime surveillance aircraft still under testing for the RuN.Check out the contenders for the Greek maritime patrol aircraft competition to get an inkling of what may be the competition.

Greece’s Maritime Patrol Aircraft Competition

 

[Quickgun Murugan]

Without the upgrades there is no comparison , however with the upgrades there is still an edge on the side of the Poseidon but the edge is greatly reduced, how do you or i know that the next upgrade shall not give a PN Orion exactly the same electronics component as the IN Poseidon?

As for an alternative there is none available off the shelf, however we could easily Co-develop an MKI version of the BE-200 maritime surveillance aircraft still under testing for the RuN.Check out the contenders for the Greek maritime patrol aircraft competition to get an inkling of what may be the competition.

Greece’s Maritime Patrol Aircraft Competition

I didn't catch your point. P3-C orion is a Lockheed martin product and P-8 poseidon is Boeing product. Boeing sub-contracts all major sub-contractors like Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Spirit AeroSystems, GE Aviation Systems, Marshall Aerospace, CFMI, BAE Systems, and Marotta under patented agreements. As of what I understand P-3C can never exactly be upgraded to P-8 Poseidon if that is what you are trying to tell.

P-3 is all set to retire from 2013.

 

[bengalraider]

I didn't catch your point. P3-C orion is a Lockheed martin product and P-8 poseidon is Boeing product. Boeing sub-contracts all major sub-contractors like Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Spirit AeroSystems, GE Aviation Systems, Marshall Aerospace, CFMI, BAE Systems, and Marotta under patented agreements. As of what I understand P-3C can never exactly be upgraded to P-8 Poseidon if that is what you are trying to tell.

P-3 is all set to retire from 2013.

P3 may not be able to get the same systems but systems that share practically the same technology are available for it.i.e the same sub-systems and pretty much the same software source code not to mention much of the firmware remains common.

 

[Quickgun Murugan]

P3 may not be able to get the same systems but systems that share practically the same technology are available for it.i.e the same sub-systems and pretty much the same software source code not to mention much of the firmware remains common.

Haha. Same sub-systems, software, firmware? You are telling as if you coded it personally.

I dont agree that Lockheed can get its hands into Boeing's technology. In the future if Pakistan Navy wants to upgrade its P-3c to to P-8 standards, it has to approach Boeing and not Lockheed. And Boeing will never upgrade a Lockheed product. Its like telling Mig corporation will upgrade a Su-30 MKI or vice versa.

 

[himanshugoswami]

who is the ultimate winner in all this? - the US defence industry. The way I see it, the US policy goes this way.

They offer New age tech to India. then, they go and sell some slightly less potent weapon systems to Pak. the moment India protests, they say "but you are our new friend, see, we are offereing you the latest tech that is generations ahead of what we offer to Pak. this is all the more reason that you should buy our modern tech" And when India does buy this modern tech from the US to counter Pak, it is the US arms suppliers that go laughing all the way to the bank.

We should seriously have a long and hard think about US defence equipment before we commit ourselves.

 

[sob]

So Pakistan will be searching for the Taliban with the P3-Cs right. :twizt::twizt:

 

[bengalraider]

Haha. Same sub-systems, software, firmware? You are telling as if you coded it personally.

I dont agree that Lockheed can get its hands into Boeing's technology. In the future if Pakistan Navy wants to upgrade its P-3c to to P-8 standards, it has to approach Boeing and not Lockheed. And Boeing will never upgrade a Lockheed product. Its like telling Mig corporation will upgrade a Su-30 MKI or vice versa.

HAHAHA I wish i had encoded it personally
but take into account that the technology rights and who can have it is primarily dependent on the USN and the US government first and foremost and they can pretty much tell boeing to put something on the P3C and boeing will have to do that.
secondly remember that we are not getting the true blue P8A we are getting a customised version called the P8I this aircraft (as some tech on the P8 remains out of bounds for us)shall retain features such as the MAD system that was deleted from the american aircraft(on the request of the IN),as for lockheed ;
Thirdly Lockheed had developed a modern version of the P3 called the P7 as the main competiotor to the P8 for the USN MMA competition, the P8 won primarily on the strength of it's airframe(the B-737800REX), not due to any significant gap in sensor technology. that should tell you one thing (even if boeing claims otherwise) if Boeing has any tech in the Poseidon Lockheed has already developed an analogue to it.

 

[Quickgun Murugan]

HAHAHA I wish i had encoded it personally
but take into account that the technology rights and who can have it is primarily dependent on the USN and the US government first and foremost and they can pretty much tell boeing to put something on the P3C and boeing will have to do that.
secondly remember that we are not getting the true blue P8A we are getting a customised version called the P8I this aircraft (as some tech on the P8 remains out of bounds for us)shall retain features such as the MAD system that was deleted from the american aircraft(on the request of the IN),as for lockheed ;
Thirdly Lockheed had developed a modern version of the P3 called the P7 as the main competiotor to the P8 for the USN MMA competition, the P8 won primarily on the strength of it's airframe(the B-737800REX), not due to any significant gap in sensor technology. that should tell you one thing (even if boeing claims otherwise) if Boeing has any tech in the Poseidon Lockheed has already developed an analogue to it.

P-7 is a dead technological demonstrator. Lockheed can only save research value for it. It cannot compete with boeing for upgrading P-3 to P-7 for other countries.

Ok, hypothetically speaking even if pakistan gets P-7, how does it bother our the purchase of P-8 for IN? Objective of P-8 is to hunt submarine not hunt each other. As long as IN is able to see and kill their subs the product is worth its value. Why do you think US should be obligated not to see anything to Pakistan if it sells to India?

To kill enemy P-3's and P-7's (if any) is fighter jets job. We should just see what we are getting and be happy with it.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

One advantage of the P-3C is it is almost 12 % of the price of P-8I's 36 million compared to 220-300$ Million, Boeing must be offering a lot of incentives to the Indian government or a lot of the P-8I 's abilities may not be made public but they serve the same purpose and Pakistan is getting it for a price where we could have bought 8-9 P-3's for every 1 P8-I.