This photo of a Canberra was taken during the Portuguese Colonial War in Mozambique (64-74) at the then AB5 Nampula.

Can anyone identify it as south african or rhodesian ?

original site :

http://www.esquadra503.com/vistas/images/vistasam52nampula_jpg.jpg

ooops , my bad, mistook it for the usual pods on the outer pylons of the Tornado 🙂

Anyone got one of those pics of the Typhoon laden with 18 Brimstones ?

Anyone got more pics of the Algerian’s SuperHind ?

That’s a nice chin they have there 😀

Ja, before the P-3C acquisiton the FAP had a program called LECIP, which had a budget of 309 million €. This program consisted in the life extension and avionics upgrade of the P-3P, so there’s clearly a will by the FAP to have upgraded P-3s.

The latest news indicate that the upgrade of the non-CUP ones might start in 2008 in OGMA, but no details are known yet (the FITS system has been rumoured). Still, the military programming law (i.e. the budget) will be revised this month, so perhaps we might know a it more then.

Another point to consider is that they won’t be needed for a “coast guard mission”, as there will be already 5 new C-295 MPAs for that mission…

The P-3s will continue to be operated by the “Esquadra 601 – Lobos” (Wolves). From now they have operated from BA6 – Montijo, but with the future arrival of C-295 fleet there they might be changed to AM1 – Ovar. The only other place where they might be deployed is to Lajes, Azores.
Their missions will stay the same, primary maritime patrolling/ASW/ASuW and secondary search&rescue and minelaying in the extensive area between Portugal, Azores and Madeira and beyond (Portugal’s responsability zone in the Atlantic stretches to its middle and almost to Cabo Verde islands, so it’s a huge area) . Training/live fire exercises have included deployments to RAF Kinloss in Scotland.

Ja, 2 of them are P-3C 1/2 CUP ( partly modernised to the CUP standard), while the other 3 are P-3C Update II.5.

The full distribution is :

FAP:

c/n —— USN BuNo — RNLN — FAP —- Model

5733 —– 161368 —– 300 —- 14807 — P-3C CUP coast guard version

5750 —– 161372 —– 304 —- 14808 — P-3C-II.5

5758 —– 161374 —– 306 —- 14809 — P-3C-II.5

5762 —– 161375 —– 307 —- 14810 — P-3C CUP coast guard version

5773 —– 161378 —– 310 —- 14811 — P-3C-II.5

Germany:

c/n —— USN BuNo — RNLN — Bundesmarine 😮 —- Model

5737 —– 161369 —– 301 ——- 60+01 ——– P-3C CUP

5741 —– 161370 —– 302 ——- 60+02 ——– P-3C CUP

5745 —– 161371 —– 303 ——- 60+03 ——– P-3C CUP coast guard version

5754 —– 161373 —– 305 ——- 60+04 ——– P-3C CUP

5765 —– 161376 —– 308 ——- 60+05 ——– P-3C CUP

5769 —– 161377 —– 309 ——- 60+06 ——– P-3C CUP

5774 —– 161379 —– 311 ——- 60+07 ——– P-3C CUP

5776 —– 161380 —– 312 ——- 60+08 ——– P-3C CUP

(information via Carlos Gomes)

rapidshare

It’s incredible how MBDA is still offering the Milan against the likes of Javelin and Spike. Seems a good decision on the spanish side, wish our army did the same soon ( the Marines are buiyng a couple of Spikes for their Pandurs, so ti’s a start).