Tag Archives: CBP P-3

CBP’s 2025 forecast

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customs cbp aircraft

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Air and Marine Operations (AMO), released its Vision 2025 report earlier this month. In case you missed it, AMO consists of some 1,300 agents who act as a mini-Coast Guard/Air National Guard with a fleet of aircraft and littoral assets who run down smugglers.

The big word in the plan is more integration through their Domain Awareness Network as a force multiplier to get the biggest bang for their buck.

An excerpt of the plan, forcast to a decade from now:

Texas Gulf Coast – 2025
A DHC-8 aircraft on routine patrol detects and identifies numerous fishing vessels.  As each vessel is identified by name and registration number, a mission sensor operator aboard the DHC-8 accesses AMO’s domain awareness network to check law enforcement and open source databases, while simultaneously streaming video and sensor data of the vessel into the network.

AMOC is also observing the vessels over the network. An intelligence research specialist discovers a link between a particular vessel and a known TCO, and advises the aircrew, passing all relevant information via the network.  A CIV responds, relying on the same information to plot an intercept and plan a tactical approach.  As the interceptor closes its range with the fishing vessel, it begins to contribute to the operating picture.

Meanwhile, a P-3 Airborne Early Warning (AEW) aircraft has been following a track of interest from the Caribbean into the Gulf of Mexico.  A fully-networked common operating picture reveals that the air track is approaching the suspect vessel.  An air interceptor launches and immediately begins using this same operating picture to calculate its intercept.  The P-3 AEW assumes on-scene command and begins to de-conflict air traffic. As the air track approaches the fishing vessel, it descends below normal land-based radar horizon, but the P-3 AEW and a coastal tethered aerostat radar system maintain contact.  That data is seamlessly networked as all assets share an uninterrupted tactical picture.

From six miles away, the crew of the DHC-8 observes a single-engine airplane overfly the fishing vessel and drop several packages before continuing Northbound.  As the fishing vessel retrieves the packages, the crew of the CIV sees this video in real-time and begins a final intercept. The CIV stops the suspect vessel, seizes 45 bales of cocaine still in plain view, arrests the crew and seizes the vessel. The air interceptor continues to use radar data from the AEW to covertly follow the airplane into a municipal airport, detain the pilot, and eventually obtain a search warrant. A search of the airplane reveals an additional kilo of cocaine.  Agents arrest the pilot, and seize the cocaine and airplane.

The 36-page report is here should you be interested

CBP grows 14 Orions strong

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CBP p-3 orion

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) recently announced the completion of its 14th and final planned P-3 Orion aircraft overhaul.

The CBP has been taking old P-3s (mainly A models) from the desert in the best condition and sending them through a SLEP program that provides new wings and tail for each Orion and completely strips down the aircraft to its bare metal for inspection. Out goes the Navy’s ASW gear, in goes new avionics and Custom’s mission systems, then they get a paint job in Homeland Security livery.

“AMO has provided a new lease on life for this aircraft that was sitting in the desert, just three years ago.” said Mike Toner, Designated Agency Representative at the Greenville, South Carolina Depot in a statement. “I flew the desert aircraft from Tucson, Arizona to Greenville. It’s great to see her flying in CBP colors now and ready to serve for years to come.”

Once the USN transitions fully to the P-8 by 2019, CBP will be the 4th largest user of the P-3 platform in the world behind Japan (73 P-3C and 13 modified Elint variants– though they are rapidly being replaced by the Kawasaki P-1), the Royal Australian Air Force (18 AP-3C, 1 P-3C) and the ROK Navy (16 P-3CKs). It is very likely that by 2020, once the P-1 gets fully produced, CBP will be the biggest Orion herder left.

Other P-3 operators are eager to keep their vintage birds in the air as well.

Flight Global reports that Boeing has been signed by New Zealand to conduct upgrades on their P-3K2 Orions. The $26.06 million deal will see Boeing replace aging, less reliable systems on the Orions, allowing the country to re-instate its ASW capability. What’s a P-3K2, exactly? The Kiwi Orions have been in service since 1966, with five aircraft originally delivered as P-3Bs, and then upgraded in the 1980s to P-3K standard. A subsequent upgrade saw them designated as P-3K2s. The new systems (which will make them P-3K3s?) will help keep them in the air through the mid-2020s.

Scratch one narco sub

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P-3s are still out there busting subs everyday...just in a different livery

P-3s are still out there busting subs everyday…just in a different livery and with no Mk46s

A Customs and Border Patrol Air and Marine Office P-3 Orion Long Range Tracker found a self-propelled semi-submersible vessel (SPSS/dope sub) in the Eastern Pacific Ocean that led to the arrest of four smugglers and the boat being lost at sea with 6 tons of blow on board. Street value was $193 milly.

As noted by CBP in their presser:

The crew aboard a P-3 Long Range Tracker detected a self-propelled semi-submersible vessel Mar. 2, while conducting counter-narcotics operations with Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) South.

The task force coordinated an interdiction of the semi-submersible with a U.S. Coast Guard vessel in the area while the AMO crew maintained constant visual surveillance. Upon interdiction, the U.S. Coast Guard arrested four individuals operating the vessel.  The semi-submersible became unstable and sank.

“This type of cooperation and teamwork produces these kinds of results where suspects are arrested and narcotics prevented from reaching U.S. shores,” said Director John Wassong at the National Air Security Operations Center – Corpus Christi. “Our crews will continue to take every opportunity to disrupt this type of transnational criminal activity.”

CBP operates two types of P-3s: 11 P-3 Airborne Early Warning, or AEW, and 3 P-3 Long Range Tracker, or LRT, aircraft flying from Corpus Christi, Texas, and Jacksonville, Florida.

CBP’s LRTs, called “slicks” by the service to differentiate them from the AN/APS 145 radar-equipped AEWs, are former USN P-3As that have landed most of their ASW and ASuW suite, replacing them with an electro-optic ball with night vision and FLIR capabilities, APG 66 air search and SeaVue marine search radars used for detecting and tracking targets of interest.

Over 40 years old, the 14 Orions flown by CBP have been extensively reworked in recent years and are expected to remain in service for another two decades.