Northrop Grumman Corporation announced it recently inducted the first U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) P-3 Orion aircraft for depot level maintenance at its Aircraft Maintenance and Fabrication Center in Lake Charles. Northrop Grumman was awarded a contract in June for aircraft maintenance and logistics services for the P-3 fleet. In addition to depot level maintenance, the company will support daily operations of the 14 aircraft fleet operating primarily out of Jacksonville, Florida, and Corpus Christi, Texas, as well as domestic and international deployment locations. All 14 aircraft in the fleet will undergo depot inductions over the course of the contract.
“Northrop Grumman’s expertise in aircraft maintenance, logistics and sustainment have kept aircraft fleets mission ready for decades,” said Michelle Scarpella, sector vice president and general manager, global sustainment and modernization, Northrop Grumman. “We support operations of aircraft around the world and have delivered depot maintenance from our Aircraft Maintenance and Fabrication Center in Lake Charles for over 20 years.”
Northrop Grumman’s growing Aircraft Maintenance and Fabrication Center is home to 700 professionals who have performed over 15 million hours of direct maintenance work on numerous aircraft including the P-3 Orion, E-8C, E2-C Hawkeye, C-2A Greyhound, and the United Kingdom Royal Air Force’s E-3D.
The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engine turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. Lockheed based it on the L-188 Electra commercial airliner. Versions have been developed for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for research and hurricane hunting/hurricane wall busting, for the U.S. Customs Service (now U.S. Customs and Border Protection) for drug interdiction and aerial surveillance mission with a rotodome adapted from the Grumman E-2 Hawkeye or an AN/APG-66 radar adapted from the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, and for NASA for research and development.
