$76.1M Upgrades More P-3C Orions For Attack Roles

Lockheed Martin Corp. Maritime Systems and Sensors in Eagan, MN received a $76.1 million ceiling-priced modification to a previously awarded indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract (N00019-04-D-0082). It exercises an option for the A-kits, B-kits, installations, and other support equipment required to convert P-3C Orion update II.5 aircraft into the P-3 Anti-Surface Warfare Improvement Program (ASUW-AIP) configuration. Personally, we think ASWIP would be a better program acronym for so many reasons. Work will be performed in Greenville, SC (85%), and Clearwater, FL (15%), and is expected to be complete in February 2007. The Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD issued the contract. DID has covered this program before, which makes a wide array of modifications to modernize the USA’s aged P-3C Orion fleet in ways that increase its detection and attack punch over sea and land. As DID’s earlier coverage notes, P-3C AIP aircraft have even found themselves in demand over Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as in their traditional maritime patrol role. See also StrategyPage’s Oct 27/08 item, “Maritime Patrol Aircraft Come Ashore“, which discusses events that happened at an especially tight time – even the US Army had been stripped of its UAVs by the USAF: “During the […]