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U.S. spyplanes monitor North Korea on New Year’s Day

January 1, 2020

SEOUL, Jan. 1 (Yonhap) — U.S. spyplanes flew over and around the Korean Peninsula on New Year’s Day, an aviation tracker said, as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the communist nation will soon show off a “new strategic weapon”.

An RC-135W Rivet Joint of the U.S. Air Force took off from Japan’s Kadena AB at 8:25 am (Korean time) for an East Sea mission, while an EP-3E of the U.S. Navy also flew over South Korea at 25,000 feet, according to Aircraft Spots.

The flights came after the North’s leader said there is no ground for him to keep his promise to suspend nuclear and long-range missile tests and the world will “witness a new strategic weapon to be possessed by the DPRK in the near future”.

The DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The U.S. has been closely monitoring the North since Pyongyang warned last month that it is up to the U.S. what Christmas gift it wants to get, sparking concern that the regime could restart testing of nuclear weapons or intercontinental ballistic missiles.

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USA approves $78m upgrade to Argentina’s recently-bought P-3C aircraft

By Garrett Reim
FlightGlobal

20 December 2019

The U.S. State Department approved a potential $78 million upgrade package for four Lockheed Martin P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft that Argentina recently purchased through the Pentagon’s Excess Defense Articles programme.

The possible Foreign Military Sale would include equipment and support services, such as four turboprop engines for each airframe, plus four turboprop engines as spares, the U.S. Defense Cooperation Agency says in a notification on 19 December. The notice did not disclose the aircraft’s new engine type, though typically the P-3C is powered by Rolls-Royce T56-A-14 turboprops, according to Lockheed Martin.

Buenos Aires’ defence minister Oscar Aguad announced the purchase of the aircraft from the U.S. government at a conference in September, according to 闯补苍别’蝉.

The P-3C entered service in the 1960s with the U.S. Navy and is a land-based anti-submarine and anti-surface ship maritime patrol aircraft. It can be armed with AGM-84 Harpoon torpedoes, AGM-84E Standoff Land Attack Missiles, AGM-65F Maverick air-to-ground missiles, Mk54 lightweight torpedoes, rockets, sea mines, and depth charges, according to the USN.

The P-3C is still used by the USN, but is being gradually retired and replaced by the larger Boeing P-8A Poseidon, which is based on the commercial 737-800ERX.

The upgrade package for Argentina’s P-3Cs will include communications equipment, radar equipment, infrared and electro-optic equipment, aircraft depot maintenance equipment, spare parts, as well as logistical and other technical assistance, says the Defense Cooperation Agency.

“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a partner in South America,” says the agency. “Argentina’s existing P-3B patrol aircraft have reached the end of their operational service life. To maintain maritime security, Argentina acquired four [Excess Defense Article] P-3C aircraft to replace its older aircraft.”

Crucially, Argentina’s southernmost point, the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, sits off the Drake Passage, an important route between the South Pacific and South Atlantic through which submarines pass as they traverse the globe. Monitoring underwater traffic through that area could be a vital mission for Argentina’s upgraded P-3Cs.

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The same photo is also available here without the need to register and log in like on the DVIDS site:

Jeff

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VIRIN: 191111-N-PC620-0279

An Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force P-3F Orion flies past the dry cargo and ammunition ship USNS Alan Shepard (T-AKE 3) during a replenishment-at-sea with the guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60) in the Gulf of Oman on November 11, 2019. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Michael H. Lehman/Released)

A larger, high-res version can be viewed or downloaded here:

(Posted image was cropped from the original.)

Lockheed P-3F-160-LO Orion
s/n 5-8705
FMS BuNo 159346
c/n 685A-6005

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What interface problems? I send an e-mail, I receive an e-mail. That's pretty simple with any e-mail programme I've ever used.

I own multiple groups, but I don't need to go to the YahooGroups website more than an average of once a week and even then it's usually for my own reasons and not for group management tasks. Either way, I can easily do what I need to do there and I have no problems with the interface.

Jeff

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VIRIN: 140813-N-QR600-174

PACIFIC OCEAN – (Aug. 13, 2014) – A P-3C Orion from the “Fighting Marlins” of VP-40 flies a mission during GUAMEX 2014, a multi-lateral exercise intended to enhance the interoperability and to strengthen personnel ties between the U.S. Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Royal Australian Air Force, and Royal New Zealand Air Force. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jillian Lotti/Released)

A larger, high-res version can be viewed or downloaded here:

Lockheed P-3C AIP+ Orion
BuNo 162314
c/n 285G-5786

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Navy’s removal of memorial honoring P-3 era in Hawaii upsets local community

By: Victoria Leoni
Navy Times

April 27, 2018

Residents in the west Oahu city of Kapolei are demanding answers from the Navy after a public veterans memorial in their community was recently removed without their knowledge.

The memorial honored the legacy of Naval Air Station Barbers Point, which operated between 1942 and 1999 as the largest naval air station in the Pacific theater.

The base was home to the P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and was one of several naval installations targeted during the attacks on Pearl Harbor.

When the base ceased operations in 1999 as part of BRAC closures, the Navy erected a public memorial to honor the WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Cold War, and Gulf War veterans who served at the air station.

The memorial was located across the street from the former base headquarters and was made of stylized Hawaiian lava rock which read in raised silver letters, “Naval Air Station Barbers Point 1942-1999”. Enclosed within the rock wall was a silver-coated, 1/15-scale model of the P-3C Orion.

John Bond, a Kapolei community historian and military history buff, said residents were completely caught off guard when a forklift came and removed the P-3C model and silver lettering from the memorial on a Saturday morning early last month.

“Everybody who saw it was shocked,” he said. “We thought it was a permanent monument to the naval air station. It’s a public area right where everybody goes by. The last thing in the world we would have thought is this would be taken down.”

A spokesperson for Navy Region Hawaii confirmed it approved the memorial’s removal.

In a statement, Jim Neuman, the History and Heritage Outreach Manager at Navy Region Hawaii, said the memorial was “vandalized, soiled, and almost stolen a number of times over the years since base closure.”

Neuman said the memorial had been transferred to Marine Corps Base Hawaii, where it will remain under the safekeeping of the Naval Support Detachment and Commander, Patrol and Reconnaissance Forces of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Bond said he passed the memorial on a weekly basis, but never saw any evidence of vandalism. He believes the memorial’s removal has to do with planned redevelopment of the land, which was recently transferred from the Navy to private developer, Hunt.

Navy Region Hawaii never consulted the community on the memorial’s planned removal, Bond said, adding that the Navy said it didn’t have to do any consulting because the memorial did not meet the 50-year mark required to qualify as “historic property”.

Historic or not, Bond said the memorial held a special place in the community which the Navy’s actions failed to honor.

“I’ve gotten many, many e-mails from people upset about it, saying they would pay to have it restored or they would pay to get a lawyer to sue the Navy, all kinds of reactions like that,” he said. “Of the Navy veterans who specifically were involved in the P-3 era, they’re especially upset about it. Like all of us, we just had no idea this would ever happen.”

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Canada, Australia to send military aircraft to monitor North Korean ships
International effort aimed at ensuring the denuclearization of Korean peninsula
CBC

Apr 28, 2018

The Canadian military is joining Britain, the U.S., and Australia in a new surveillance mission to monitor ship-to-ship transfers of oil and other goods to and from North Korea in violation of UN sanctions.

Canada is sending about 40 support personnel and a long-range patrol aircraft, a CP-140 Aurora, to the U.S. military’s Kadena Air Base on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, a spokesperson for the Canadian defence department confirmed in a statement on Saturday.

The aircraft and personnel are from CFB Comox in B.C.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan also issued statements saying the aim of Canada’s participation in the operation is to “counter North Korea’s maritime smuggling in accordance with relevant UNSC resolutions.”

Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull confirmed his country’s role in the patrols on Saturday, a day after the leaders of North and South Korea pledged at a historic summit to work for the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who is also set to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in either May or June, has said he would maintain pressure on Pyongyang through sanctions that were imposed in a bid to rein in the North’s missile and nuclear programs.

Australia, a staunch U.S. ally, also promised to keep up economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea.

“We do have a P-8A surveillance aircraft that is going to be working in the region to monitor compliance with sanctions and that is part of our collaboration with our partners in that exercise to enforce those UN sanctions,” Turnbull said, speaking during a televised news conference. “What has been occurring is that sanctions have been evaded by transferring materials from ship to ship...to add to the surveillance of the area enables that to be identified and then, of course, those who are a party to that to be held responsible and brought to account.”

Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said pressure had to be kept on North Korea to ensure the Korean peninsula was denuclearized.

The move by Australia and Canada to deploy patrol aircraft comes after a British warship arrived in Japan this month to join efforts to police UN sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs.

“Japan welcomes these [surveillance activities from the viewpoint of upholding the maximum pressure on North Korea while maintaining the solidarity of the international community,” the Japanese government said in a statement, referring to the moves by Australia, Canada, and Britain.

Senior U.S. officials said in February the Trump administration and key Asian allies were preparing to expand interceptions of ships suspected of violating the sanctions on North Korea. The strategy called for closer tracking of ships suspected of carrying banned weapons components and other prohibited cargo to and from North Korea.

(with files from Reuters)

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NOAA Lockheed WP-3D Orion (N42RF) in flight on October 2, 2005. (NOAA photo)

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NOAA Lockheed WP-3D Orion (N42RF) in Halifax, Nova Scotia for Ocean Winds 2015, a satellite data validation project. (NOAA photo by Terry Lynch)

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NOAA Lockheed WP-3D Orion (N42RF) in its new paint scheme on October 17, 2016 following a 19-month major overhaul. (NOAA photo by Mike Mascara)

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NOAA Lockheed WP-3D Orion (N43RF) in flight on June 29, 2005. (NOAA photo by Michael Black)

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NOAA Lockheed WP-3D Orion (N43RF) takes off from MacDill AFB on May 29, 2013. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Shandresha Mitchell/Released)

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Lockheed WP-3D-165-LO Orion
N42RF
c/n 285A-5622
ex-BuNo 159773
“碍别谤尘颈迟”
Lockheed WP-3D-165-LO Orion
N43RF
c/n 285A-5633
ex-BuNo 159875
“Miss Piggy”

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VIRIN: 180403-N-KG618-216

OAK HARBOR, Wash. – (April 3, 2018) – Two P-3 Orions from the “Fighting Marlins” of VP-40 taxi at NAS Whidbey Island upon returning from deployment to the U.S. 5th, 6th, and 7th Fleets areas of operations. VP-40 is assigned to Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing 10 and is stationed at NASWI. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kevin A. Flinn/Released)

[NOTE: The official USN caption says they’re both from VP-40, but the lead aircraft might be from VP-1, which is also based at NASWI.]

A larger, high-res version can be viewed or downloaded here:

Lockheed P-3C Orion
BuNo 161408
c/n 285A-5746
Lockheed P-3C Orion
BuNo 162776
c/n 285G-5802

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> Only activity in the bird in the front and that’s a VP-62, not a VP-26 aircraft?

The original official USN caption only says the maintenance personnel are from VP-26, not the aircraft, and makes no mention of the other aircraft.

"But other than that, how did you like the play, Mrs Lincoln?"? :-)

Jeff

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VIRIN: 050712-N-8228R-250

NAS JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – (June 12, 2005) – Maintenance personnel from the “Tridents” of VP-26 conduct system checks on a P-3C Orions prior to a night flight. (U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Johnathan Roark/Released)

A larger, high-res version can be viewed or downloaded here:

Lockheed P-3C-230-LO Orion
BuNo 163003
c/n 285G-5810