Sorry for the delay, but we're back. Our first speaker was Dave Campbell, the Lockheed Martin P-3 Chief Engineer and we'll have his highlights up in a little while.
Speaking now is Cmdr. Martin Monsalve from the Argentine Navy who is speaking on P-3B operations in the Argentine Navy.
The Argentine Navy was founded in February 1916. The Argentine Navy got their eight used P-3B aircraft in 1997. The AN base is NAS Almirantezar Trelew.
The AN started P-3 operations with three L-188 Electra -- the "father" of the P-3 -- for personnel transport. In 1983, the P-2 Neptune was removed from service and the AN bought more L-188s and modified them for sea patrol and search and rescue. These L-188s accumulated more than 33,000 flight hours over their careers.
The actual P-3s arrived in 1997 and there were many maintainence similarities between the L-188 and the P-3.
The AN still uses the older APS-80 search radar and it is becoming harder to maintain and to get replacement parts for it.
Future plans include replacing the APS-80, adding an optical/infrared sensor, and increased emphasis on sustainment, particularly fatigue.
No comments:
Post a Comment