Germany's first P-3C CUP Orion, 60+03, carried the preliminary registration 98+01 when this photograph was taken last year. The bulbous radome under the centre fuselage houses the new electronic surveillance measures sensors.

MFG 3 presented its new maritime patrol aircraft to the public at the Nordholz Open Day on August 27 last year, when its first P-3C CUP Orion was displayed as part of a mixed formation with three Br1150 Atlantics (the ELINT variant of which is seen here).

A German technician working on one of the P-3’s Allison T-56 turboprops. The combination of greater reliability and longer periods between scheduled maintenance will give the Orion a higher availability.

Tactical co-ordinators are able to send data to land-based command centres or to commanders in the field.

A requirement for two 'wet' sensor operators is probably driven more by the system complexity than the numbers of anti-submarine warfare sorties flown. Indeed, the focus is changing from anti-submarine warfare to anti-surface ship warfare.