Canada has signed a $156 million deal with Lockheed Martin that will extend the service life of its CP-140 Aurora fleet by 20 to 25 years and greatly reduce maintenance costs over that period.
The contract provides for Lockheed to install life-extension kits on 10 CP-140s - Canada's version of the US Navy's P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft.
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© Canadian Forces image gallery |
The deal makes Canada the fourth customer for Lockheed's three-year-old P-3 aircraft service life-extension programme, following Norway, the US Customs and Border Patrol and the USN. The company meanwhile confirms that a proposal for Taiwan's P-3 fleet is "in work".
Lockheed's P-3 life-extension kit is aimed at adding 15,000 flight hours to each airframe's service life.
Canada's current inventory of Auroras totals 20 Rolls-Royce Allison T56-powered aircraft, deliveries of which started in 1980, according to Flight's MiliCAS database.
Source: Flight International
