Brazilian P-3AM upgrade to complete in coming months

Airbus Defence and Space is to deliver back to the Brazilian Air Force (Força Aérea Brasileira) (FAB) in the coming months the last of nine Lockheed Martin P-3AM Orion maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) it has been upgrading.
Airbus has been fitting the FAB's P-3A fleet with a new mission suite and upgraded avionics at its Seville production facility in Spain.
At the end of 2013 there were delivered eight of the nine P-3AM aircraft
The FAB acquired the 12 aircraft in 2002 from the USAF's 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG).
It then launched an upgrade to equip nine of the aircraft with the Airbus DS Fully Integrated Tactical System (FITS) mission suite, the ELTA Systems EL/M-2022A(V)3 multi-mode airborne maritime surveillance radar with an identification friend-or-foe (IFF) interrogator, the Thales TopDeck 'glass' cockpit, a datalink and enhanced communications suite, and a FLIR Systems Star SAFIRE HD electro-optic/infrared sensor turret.
FAB's remaining three P-3As are to be kept for spares.
janes