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Late 70s P-3C Load Outs


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As far as what is legal to load on a P-3, Mk 82,83,84 (depending on which station), Mk 20s, 5" Rockets, 2.75" Rockets (but they need a fairing over the wingtip fuel vents), various mines. Late 70s, maybe Bullpups too, but you'd probably need somebody with more expertise to chime in on the exact timeline. Those may have already fallen out of favor.

 

The bigger question would be, what would actually be loaded. Bombs were probably regularly dropped for training, most likely Mk 82s. I'm curious what others will have to contribute on inputs.

 

Cheers,

Hoops

Edited by Hoops
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In the 70’s, the P-3 community was very heavy into ASW (a long lost art IMO). Secondary missions of maritime patrol and mining were also practiced. Look up Destructor mines in google. White or orange colored exercise mines based on MK-80 series bombs are an option. P-3’s with Rockeye on the wing pylons are legal but rare in the 70’s.  Harpoon didn’t come deploy air launched until ‘79-ush. 

There are some older time P-3 folks that will be along to share what they know for sure. 

Cheers

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50 minutes ago, Spectre711 said:

So whats the difference between the orange with gray stripes compared to the gray with orange stripes on them?  Or maybe they are white and not gray?

Probably depended on how much the mine assembly folks had to drink the night before?

I honestly don’t know (or forgot most likely). I just wrote the numbers down, made sure each plane in the mining strike had the right mines on each bird, and made sure my mines came off my aircraft on the target run. 

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12 hours ago, Spectre711 said:

So whats the difference between the orange with gray stripes compared to the gray with orange stripes on them?  Or maybe they are white and not gray?

Basically, time frame. IIRC, Destructors were painted one way and Quickstrikes were painted the other way, I believe Destructors were orange with white stripes and Quickstrikes were white with orange stripes. Externally, there is no difference between a Destructor and a Quickstrike mine.

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In the kit there is a pod that would be at station 15.  Would this be a Low Light Level TV camera?  If so when was this used till? 

This VP-47 photo from from 1974 has it in there.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lockheed_P-3C_158205_VP-47_RD-3_Kinloss_07.74_edited-2.jpgLockheed_P-3C_158205_VP-47_RD-3_Kinloss_

 

Edited by Spectre711
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Most ASW / MARPAT missions I flew in the early eighties, we flew clean on the wings, with maybe one or two live Mk46s in the bay.  Otherwise, the only thing we ever dropped were buoys and pingers. We did simulated mining runs on our Bermuda det, circa 1983.  Used to love buzzing the cruise ships in the channel.  Keflavik was almost always ASW.  Occasionally a SAR mission also.

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