La US Navy ha reconocido temores a tener que paralizar su flota de P-3 Orion. Con su sustituto, el Boeing P-8A Poseidon, todavía a cuatro años de su entrada en servicio, una serie de inspecciones detectaron daños estructurales que llevó a la paralización de 49 unidades de un total de 120.
Desde entonces han retornado 33 unidades al servicio, aunque con gran esfuerzo.
El P-3C está diseñado para volar unas 7.500 horas, aunque la media de cada avión actualmente es de 16.000 horas.
flightglobal
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The US Navy has quietly overcome a grounding scare.
With the P-3C's replacement aircraft - the Boeing P-8A Poseidon - still four years away from operational status, a series of inspections revealed structural damage that led to the grounding of all but 49 of 120 combat-coded Orions by September 2009.
The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has since returned 33 of these aircraft to flying status within a 12-month period. Programme officials were forced to stand up a new supply chain to deliver critical aluminium extrusions in less than half the normal lead-time.
Concerns about the P-3C's structural health soon followed. Designed with a service life of 7,500 flight hours, the fleet today averages about 16,000h.
flightglobal
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