SINGAPORE, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Singapore is considering buying up to four U.S. Navy's surplus P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, Lockheed Martin said.
"They have issued a letter of request to look at P-3s," said Mark Jarvis, Lockheed's director of design and production for P-3 programs.
Singapore, which operates five Fokker 50 maritime patrol aircraft, would pick up the Navy's surplus Orions as they are phased out and replaced by the Boeing 737-based P-8A Poseidon.
Configuration of the aircraft for Singapore is likely to be similar to 12 secondhand Orions being upgraded for delivery to Taiwan beginning in 2012.
In early 2009, Lockheed Martin's Maritime Systems and Sensors Tactical Systems division won a $666 million fixed-price contract for the procurement of phased depot maintenance, structural service life extension and avionics modification on 12 P-3C aircraft for the Taiwanese government.
Despite Lockheed shutting down its P-3C production lines in Burbank, Calif., in 1991, there continues to be demand for revamped versions of the four-engine turboprop maritime patrol aircraft. Modernizations are done at Lockheed's Greenville site in South Carolina.
The first flight of the prototype flew in August 1958 and was based on Lockheed's commercial airliner the L-188 Electra but with structural modifications. These include a bomb bay, a nose radar cone and a long tail extension to house submarine detection systems. Wing hard points also were added to carry missiles.
Power is from four Rolls-Royce Allison T56 turboprops, which give it a top speed of 411 knots, meaning it is comparable to the fastest propeller fighters, or even slow low-bypass turbofan jets such as the A-10 Thunderbolt II or the S-3 Viking.
Similar aircraft to the P-3C include the Soviet Ilyushin Il-38 and the French Breguet Atlantic.
More than 430 P-3s are in use by 17 countries, Lockheed says.
Other countries that have ordered upgrades or which are in discussion with Lockheed include Canada, Norway and Germany, which "is probably our next customer" and whose navy operates eight Orions, Jarvis said. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency is also looking at upgrades.
Jarvis said Lockheed is considering, after customer inquiries, the installation of an upgraded version of the T56 engine and using new propellers to improve performance and reliability. "We would look to get into the wind tunnel maybe around the end of next year."
The T56 was developed by the Allison Engine Company for the Lockheed C-130 transport entering production in 1954. It is now produced by Rolls-Royce, which acquired Allison in 1995.
The latest T56 version, the series IV, produces 5,250 shaft horsepower and is used in the Northrop Grumman E-2C+ Hawkeye, Rolls-Royce said. It produces 27 percent more power but uses 13 percent less fuel.
The success of the P-3C life extensions is in contrast to the difficulties that BAe has had in prolonging the life of the jet-powered Nimrod patrol aircraft. The Nimrod was originally built by Hawker Siddeley and based on the Comet passenger aircraft made by de Havilland in the early 1960s.
Cost and technical issues have dogged BAe in its development of the Nimrod MR4A and the U.K. government axed its orders for the plane this fall as part of a major savings program.
