Argentina acquires P-3 Orion aircraft for control and surveillance of the South Atlantic
October 17, 2023
The Minister of Defense, Jorge Taiana, and the head of the Argentine Navy, Admiral Julio Guardia, today led the signing of an agreement with the head of Department D3 of the Norwegian Defense Materiel Agency of the Kingdom of Norway for the acquisition, through the National Defense Fund, of four P3 Orion aircraft that will be used for surveillance and control and search and rescue in the South Atlantic.
“These aircraft have a particular observation capacity and also have a great autonomy, which allows them to fly for many hours, being very useful for the surveillance and control of our territorial sea and especially of our exclusive economic zone. They will also be of great importance for the search and rescue system,” said the Minister of Defense on the Presidente Sarmiento frigate.
“The acquisition of these aircraft,” said Taiana, “is a great contribution to strengthening the policy we are developing to improve the surveillance and control of our waters. To do this, we created the Joint Maritime Command, and under its direction the four new ocean patrol boats are used, but, in addition, we needed a long-distance observation aircraft such as the Orion, which will be based in Trelew, a specific observation station of the Naval Aviation.”
“We are also in the process of purchasing specific helicopters for hangars on the ocean patrol boats, so we believe that with all these measures we are taking a very important step in covering and defending our sovereignty and taking care of our resources. We are the ones who guarantee control in our waters,” said Minister Taiana.
For his part, Guardia said, “These four aircraft are central to the Force, since they allow almost continuous permanence in what are our areas of interest, thanks to the enormous autonomy they have, the radar systems they have, and some other technical elements that we plan to add through national development.”
The acquisition of these aircraft will make it possible to recover the capacity for long-range exploration in the Exclusive Economic Zone and to have a greater presence in the maritime areas of interest and the Argentine Antarctic, especially with regard to the control of living and non-living resources and maritime lines of communication. In addition, these aircraft, thanks to their characteristics and performance, are essential to fulfill the functions of search and protection of human life at sea, a responsibility that the Argentine Republic assigns to the Navy.
It should be noted that the negotiations for this incorporation began last March and continued throughout the year through meetings held in Buenos Aires, as well as in Norway based on the technical visit carried out by aeronautical engineers from the Naval Aviation Command together with the team from Department D3 of the NDMA.
The NDMA, the agency through which the new aircraft were acquired, reports to the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, whose task is to obtain, maintain, and dispose of the material for use by the Armed Forces of the Kingdom of Norway.
As for the aircraft, one of them is the P-3N version (SAR and Mobile Logistics Support) and the remaining three in the P-3C exploration version, with an average flight potential of 17,000 flight hours, which represents an employment time of at least 15 years. It should be noted that the agreement made by the entire Norwegian P-3 system will be supported entirely with funds from FONDEF.
On the other hand, its extensive radius of action of 1,500 nautical miles (2780 km), added to its autonomy of 12 hours of flight, allow it to cover the Argentine maritime coast, continental shelf, and Argentine Antarctica without inconveniences, allowing the permanence in a certain zone or area for prolonged periods. Its ability to operate in all types of weather allows operation from any base and airport on the sea coast, which facilitates its presence in a given area in a relatively short period of time, essential for a SAR search.
In addition, the aircraft has different search sensors, such as radars and camera systems, associated with the corresponding communications systems, allowing the collection, processing, and transmission of data in real time.
All these characteristics will be combined with the work carried out by the Joint Maritime Command, which assumes the conduct of surveillance and control operations of maritime and river areas under national jurisdiction, in order to safeguard Argentina’s sovereign interests at sea and our exclusive economic zone through the A.R.A. Piedrabuena Oceanic Patrol Boats: Rear Admiral Cordero, Storni, and Bouchard.
Currently, these aircraft are in the U.S. The U.S. government granted the endorsement to make the transfer to third parties.
Along these lines, Naval Aviation pilots are conducting flight simulator training in the United States. We need to be in a position to proceed with the acceptance and transfer of the first aircraft to our country.
The acquisition also includes the entire maintenance system, accessories and spare parts, test benches, and components that will be moved from Norway to the Alte Naval Air Base. ZAR, located in Trelew, province of Chubut.
The National Defence Policy Directive (Decree 457/21) establishes the need to weigh, from the perspective of Defence, the existence of large territorial areas that are effectively and potentially profitable in terms of natural resources, which will be the subject of sovereign claims in the immediate future. In this way, military planning for defense identifies such challenges and assigns to the military instrument a role in the surveillance and strategic control of such spaces.
The negotiations were attended by the Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Defense, Héctor Mazzei, the Commander of Naval Aviation and Navy Commodore, Juan Mercatelli with his team; and the Director of Naval Air Materiel, Captain Martín Monsalve, under the General Directorate of Naval Materiel.
Present at the event were the Chief of Staff, Héctor Mazzei; the Secretary of International Affairs for Defense, Francisco Cafiero; the Undersecretary for Scientific Research and Industrial Policy for Defense, Roberto Adaro; and the Undersecretary of Operational Planning and Logistics Service, Joaquín Labarta Liprandi.
Also present at the signing were the director of the Norwegian Defense Materiel Agency, Magnus Hansvold, and Norway’s ambassador to the country, Halvor S?tre.
Source: Argentine Republic
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