Nice post, your information regarding PN aviation specially P-3 are very informative. So should we see PN after P-3 accusation as end state of PN accusation of maritime patrol air craft for next 2 decades? or will PN consider next generation MPA like SAAB-2000 MPA or Japanese P-X.. One set back of P-8 for PN is the prise tag of 737 platform and cost no less then 100 million dollars let alone MPA systems.. A very smart decision was made by PAF for its AEW&C platform over a jet platform and chose better SAAB-2000.
Is the P-3C acquisition the final MPA to be included within the PN NAA inventory you ask? That is not a question we could know the answer to at this point in time unfortunately. One can make a fair and intelligent assumption as to that being the case based on the information available today whilst not being privy to the PN future 20 year plan. But who know's what may happen in the future. With past US-Pakistani relationships having had their fair shares of up's and down's, we can only wait and watch to see if the remaining 5 P-3C's will be delivered.
The 2nd thing is that all 7 Orions need to be of the Update III+ modification. The two aircraft delivered last year do not feature this upgrade and will be returned to LMCO in due course to retrofitted to that standard. So currently PN has two aircraft of update II.75 tail numbers 81 and 82 delivered in 1996/97 (83 was lost in Sep 1999 with loss of all 21 crew) and two aircraft of update II.5/III delivered in 2007, tail numbers 84 and 85. The aircraft have been provided to PN to help 28 Sqn ramp up its personnel in readiness for absorbing all 7 update III+ aircraft which is a substantial increase in trained aircrew for the squadron. This project plan does make sense when you look at all the factors involved. Aircraft 81 and 82 will not be updated to Update III+ standard. The contract with LMCO/Ogma signed in 2004 was only for maintining the structural integrity of the aircraft. It did not cover any avionics upgrade, with the aircraft maintaining their avionics suite as per their original spec when rolled out from the factory line and outfitted to II.75 in 1990. This will be news to most people, certainley was for me when I heard this from LMCO (and not from the briefing by PRO PN)
At present there has no talk of retiring the F-27 aircraft in PN service and it is likely that 27Sqn will continue using this aircraft type. The F-27 aircraft in NAA service features both the MPA version as well as at least 1 for liason duties. Whilst the configuration of the aircraft can be changed quickly to offer a versatile fixed-wing platform, it does have its uses which will only complement the Orion in PN service. One example of this is para drops for SSGN a role which only three other aircraft can undertake in Pakistan; C-130 and CN-235 both in PAF service and PBN Islander in MSA service. The P-3's can also act as a control aircraft in guiding F-27's for ASuW operations as the MPA version is equipped to undertake that.
As for 29Sqn? No announcement has been made which talks about retiring the Br1150 Atlantic. Whilst it would make sense to do so after all the Orions have been delivered in their final configuration, it does bring to mind the question whether PN can afford to do so. Should sanctions be applied on the P-3 fleet any time in the future, the Atlantic is the only aircraft in PN service capable of offering anything resembling true MPA capabilities with the F-27 only supporting/complementing that role. Whilst the P-3's currently in PN service feature equipment-fit from 1990, the Atlantics however were upgraded in 1993-95 following contract signature with Thompson-CSF in 1993 and are still a potent MPA platform. However with a small fleet of 3 aircraft, the status of 29 Sqn and its aircraft composition may well be dictated by the financial disposition of the country's treasury in the short term, whilst inadvertently overlooking implications for the long term.
PN has made it hard in recent years for any journalists to visit PNS Mehran in order to write about NAA, so accurate and objective information is hard to come by, an example of this being the point made earlier as to PN only receiving 7 aircraft of Update III+, whilst the original two will remain II.75. But on the brighter side, Pakistani
P-3C aircrew are still travelling to Jacksonville, USA
for training and Orion deliveries are still slated to be on track, so lets be optimistic.
