Airforces - Typhoon school

(Jacob Rumans) #1
ue to its strategic position
in Europe’s southwestern
extremity and its long
Atlantic coast, Portugal needs
aircraft specially equipped for
long-range maritime patrol.
They must be capable of a wide
spectrum of missions, such as
SAR, intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance (ISR), countering
illegal immigration, environmental
protection, as well as anti-surface
warfare and ASW. For this, the
Força Aérea Portuguesa (FAP,
Portuguese Air Force) employs
two different aircraft types: the
P-3C CUP+ Orion, operated
by Esquadra 601 ‘Lobos’
(Wolves), and the C295MPA
Persuader from Esquadra 502
‘Elefantes’ (Elephants).
The ‘Lobos’ are based at Base
Aérea No 11 (BA11) at Beja,
in the south of the country.
Esquadra 601 has five Orions
that were acquired from the Royal
Netherlands Navy in 2005 and
modernised at Lockheed Martin’s
Greenville plant, in South Carolina,

and in Indústria Aeronáutica de
Portugal (OGMA) facilities in
Alverca, Portugal. The aircraft
have been stationed at Beja since


  1. Apart from the Portuguese
    coast, the Orions also operate over
    the islands of Madeira and the
    Azores, the latter at distances of
    around 994 miles (1,600km) from
    the mainland. Lajes air base in the
    Azores is used by the FAP’s P-3s


when required, although the aircraft
has enough range to operate
around the islands from Beja.
Between 2003 and 2016 the
Portuguese Orions also took
part in NATO’s Operation Active
Endeavour, in the Mediterranean,
where they accomplished 267
sorties, having flown a total of
1,897 hours. The last mission
within the scope of Active
Endeavour occurred in October


  1. Two months later another
    P-3C was deployed over the
    Mediterranean within the context
    of Operation Sea Guardian, a
    new NATO mission to counter
    the network of people traffickers


in the central Mediterranean.
Flying from Beja, the aircraft
conducted eight-hour patrols
over an area of around 154,441sq
miles (400,000km^2 ). The mission
resulted in identification of two
vessels possibly associated with
illegal immigration, and several
occurrences of maritime pollution.
Last April, an FAP P-3C returned
to the Mediterranean for a longer
Sea Guardian mission. Flying from
Sigonella in Sicily for two weeks,
the aircraft flew for 60 hours and
detected 8,404 ships. On April
15, in perhaps the most dramatic
incident flown from the Italian
base, an Orion spotted a semi-
rigid boat with around 100 people
on board and at risk of sinking.
The Portuguese crew immediately
called rescue assets to the scene.
In March last year a Portuguese
P-3C departed for the African
continent, to participate in the
US Navy’s Exercise Obangame
Express 2017 in the Gulf of Guinea.
Last summer the FAP used
the P-3C to assist with the
control of forest fires in Portugal,
monitoring areas that were
burning and identifying areas
susceptible to catching fire again.
This summer the P-3C is
expected to spend one
month deployed in

Portugal


ORBAT
Unit Aircraft Base
Squadron 601
‘Lobos’

P-3C CUP+
Orion

BA11
Beja
Squadron 502
‘Elefantes’

C295M
Persuader

BA6
Montijo

Inventory
Aircraft Number
P-3C CUP+ Orion 5
C295MPA Persuader 5*
* From a total of 12 C295M aircraft

On the Atlantic frontier


D


Right: A considerable proportion
of maritime patrol missions
within Portuguese waters are the
responsibility of the ‘Lobos’ from
Esquadra 601. P-3C CUP+ 14808 (c/n
5750) was formerly NLD 304 with the
Royal Netherlands Navy and wears
a special scheme to mark the 30th
anniversary of the squadron. Luí s
André Diogo Above: The C295MPA
Persuader’s Star SAFIRE HD sensor
provides fully digital high-defi nition
video from all of its imaging sensors.
FAP Above right: A P-3C CUP+
takes off from BA11 Beja. As of
2016 the FAP had an average of two
operational P-3Cs that fl ew a total of
911 hours – a reduction over previous
years. Christian Timmig

76 // APRIL 2018 #361 http://www.airforcesmonthly.com

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