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Sailors of Patrol Squadron (VP) 26 will make history Jan. 22 as the last East Coast squadron to deploy in the P-3C Orion aircraft. For the squadron, this deployment will mark the sunset of an aircraft with a 50-year legacy of excellence and historic milestones which began with the acceptance of its first P-3B back in 1966. On Jan. 4 of that year, nearly 49 years to the month, VP-26 became the Navy’s first operational P-3B squadron, when the squadron ferried the first P-3B from its production site in Burbank, Calif. to Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Maine.

via Tridents lead the way once again | Jax Air News.

Since Spill is busy carousing around Chicago with a hot blonde, I’ll have to share this story he pointed out to me last night.

It seems like only yesterday that the P-8A achieved Initial Operational Capability. And here we are with the last East Coast Orion deployment already. Still to go are the squadrons at NAS Whidbey and in Hawaii. That’s going to take a few more years.

Spill also raised the interesting question of what will become of the VPU squadron. The VPU squadron is a “special projects” patrol squadron, and one of the more “secret squirrel” organizations in Naval Air.

They fly P-3s with deceptive markings, doing who knows what, very quietly. It’s not a secret to spot their planes, of which there are only a couple. But the community is famously tight lipped, even more so than the EP-3E electronic intel community. With the regular Orion fleet gone, the VPU guys will no longer be able to hide in plain sight. Will they get one or two P-8s to play with? Dunno, but it’s a good question.

Speaking of the EP-3E guys, I keep hearing there is a follow-on in the works, but nothing solid. So far, it appears they’ll keep the EP-3 going at least until the rest of the P-3 fleet is gone, and then panic about what to do next. At this point, it’s starting to look like the most likely option is to lose the ELINT capability, and then cobble together some jury rigged alternatives.