The Royal Norwegian Air Force has taken delivery of the first set of new production wings for its fleet of P-3 Orion aircraft.
The new production wings are a part of Lockheed’s P-3 aircraft service life extension programme (ASLEP).
The programme will replace the outer wings, centre wing lower surface assembly, horizontal stabiliser, wing and horizontal stabiliser leading edges and various filet fairings of the aircraft.
Under the programme, all necessary fatigue-life limiting structures are to be replaced, to reduce maintenance and sustainment costs.
Lockheed P-3/S-3 programmes vice president Ray Burick said that working with their many P-3 customer operators worldwide, they identified a coming need to replace P-3 wings.
“We established the P-3 wing production line to meet that need and to ensure that our customers’ P-3s are patrolling the skies for decades to come,” Burick said.
The RNoAF will receive six life extension kits, two conditional kits and engineering support under the contract.
