German P-3C Orion aircraft to receive upgraded mission processing suites
NewsNovember 02, 2017
OWEGO, N.Y. Officials at Lockheed Martin received a $158.5 million contract for the second phase of the German Navy P-3C Mission System Refresh program. The program will upgrade the mission system processing suites on the fleet of eight P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft to support operations through 2035.
The Mission System Refresh is part of an overall fleet upgrade that includes structural mid-life upgrades as well as an upgrade to the Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) cockpit capability.
The Germany P-3C Orion Mission System Refresh Program will include the design, development, manufacture, integration, installation, and test of the Lockheed Martin Airborne Tactical Mission System. The majority of the hardware and software design, manufacture and upgrades will be performed at Lockheed Martin sites in Owego, New York, Manassas, Virginia and Marietta, Georgia.
The Airborne Tactical Mission System is an Open Architecture JAVA-based system that provides software programs as well as core mission system processing, display and control components. In addition to the Airborne Tactical Mission System, the Mission System Refresh will include a new acoustic processing system called the Airborne Rack-Mounted Commercial Portable Processor (AR-C2P) that will provide long-term sustainability in the P-3 aircraft.
The Germany P-3 Orion Mission System Refresh Program began in 2016 when the U.S. Navy awarded Lockheed Martin an initial Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract for $54.9 million for design and development work through Preliminary Design. This current contract award of $158.5 million takes the program from Preliminary Design Review through program completion in 2022. The eight aircraft operated by the German Navy were procured in early 2006 from the Royal Netherlands Navy.
