The gap in production extended the opportunities for global operators to assess their fleet needs.
“We are very excited about restarting the wing line here in Marietta [Georgia] and we are very proud of the partnership with Canada and Chile,” said Mark Jarvis, P-3 program manager. “We look forward to building wings for the many P-3 operators across the globe.”
The MLU replaces the outer wings, center wing, horizontal stabilizer and horizontal stabilizer leading edges. All necessary fatigue life-limiting structures are replaced, leading to greatly reduced maintenance and sustainment costs. New alloys are employed that provide a five-fold increase in corrosion resistance.
The P-3 Orion plays a vital role in maritime intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, drug interdiction, hurricane hunting, fire-fighting and anti-submarine surveillance. Due to the MLU it will support operators for 20-25 more years.
