Article Posted on : - Feb 27, 2012

P3C Orion reconnaissance aircraft.

ISLAMABAD (PTI): Pakistan Navy Sunday inducted two US-made P3C Orion maritime surveillance aircraft, nearly a year after two similar planes were destroyed when heavily armed terrorists stormed a strategic naval airbase in Karachi.

The aircraft, which recently returned from the US after being fitted with modern avionics and sensors under its Foreign Military Funding programme, were inducted at a naval aviation base in Karachi, officials said.

The US will modify a total of six P3C Orion aircraft of the Pakistan Navy. The first batch of two aircraft was inducted in 2010.

The P3C Orions have extended surveillance capability that will help the Pakistan Navy maintain a vigil in its area of interest in the north Arabian Sea, officials said.

The aircraft have advanced submarine detection sensors such as the magnetic anomaly detection equipment. They can carry a mixed payload of weapons internally and on wing pylons.