US inspected Pakistani Orion aircraft in 2009: Wikileaks
Reference:
US inspected Pakistani Orion aircraft in 2009: Wikileaks - thenews.com.pk
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
ISLAMABAD: The US had expressed its concerns about tampering of the expensive P-3C Orion planes, destroyed in PNS Mehran Base attack on May 22 this year, and the Pakistan Navy had arranged an inspection for the American team in October 2009 to satisfy them that Pakistan had not tampered with the planes, wikiLeaks has disclosed.
The ‘militants’ who attacked the PNS Mehran Base in Karachi specifically targeted ‘P-3C Orion planes’ regarding which Americans were already concerned for being in possession of Pakistan. The PNS Mehran Base was attacked by at least 10 militants in May and was back under control after 17 hours. At least 18 security officials were killed and 16 other were injured in the operation.
According to a US embassy cable created on 23-10-2009 by Anne W Patterson, on September 10 and 11, 2009, ODRP Chief discussed with Rear Admiral Tanveer Faiz, Deputy Chief of Operations of the Pakistan Navy, US concerns about possible unauthorized Pakistani modificataions to US-provided Harpoon Block I missiles and P-3C maritime patrol aircraft. “In response, Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Noman Bashir authorized the US to immediately conduct an inventory of the missiles. At an October 5 meeting, Faiz gave authorization for the US to conduct an inventory of the P-3Cs,” the cable says.
“During October 12-14, a three man team of aircraft experts from PMA-290 conducted the inspection of the P-3C aircraft at PNS Mehran navy base in Karachi. The Pakistan Navy currently has four P-3C aircraft in country. (Note: Pakistan acquired from the United States two P-3Cs in the 1990s and seven additional P-3Cs though an active FMS case. Two aircraft from the current case are in Pakistan while the remaining five aircraft from the current case are in the United States undergoing maintenance. End Note) The PMA-290 team conducted an in depth Enhanced End-Use Monitoring (EEUM) inspection of the four aircraft, which consisted of visual and functional checks of the Weapons Replaceable Unit, Data Decoder/Encoder, Control Distribution Box, Harpoon Interconnection Box, Harpoon Missile Control Panel, Data Processing Computer, as well as the aircraft wings and weapon-mounting points and all associated wiring.
The PMA-290 team found no indications of tampering with the aircraft or the related systems and observed that all the systems were original. Furthermore, the team observed that the current aircraft configuration would support only firing the Harpoon Block I missiles in a sea attack capacity as it was designed and is authorized. The aircraft would not support firing any missile in a land attack capacity”, it concludes.
Why would US be concerned about these old planes? and not the new one it sure leaves some unanswered questions about US planes were these planes not "bugged" so they were of particular interest ?
One could argue that if Americans had access to the airport and P3 orions they had a very very good understanding of security setup at that airport
freee? are you ok ? we paid some 60m$ o upgrade them in usa
New Recruit
Because the wikileak related to the incident is inteteresting,less known and the thread did not get much discussion in the first place.
