Misawa P-3 maintainers bring P-3 back to flying standards

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan -- Two P-3 Orion maintainers work on repairs to parts of the aircraft during its downtime. P-3's can fly for about 90 days until they need to come to Misawa for repairs. The process usually takes about 10 days to completely bring the P-3 back up to flying standards. (Photo by Senior Airman Sasha Navarro-Schmidt)

Misawa maintainer works to keep P-3 flying

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan -- A maintainer works on a part of the P-3 Orion aircraft here. The men and women who are part of the P-3 squadron work at a facility that is able to do specialized work, the only facility in the Pacific Theater equipped to do so. (Photo by Senior Airman Sasha A. Navarro-Schmidt)

Misawa Air Base, hub for P-3 Maintenance and Special Inspections

Published July 22, 2007
By Senior Airman Sasha A. Navarro-Schmidt
Air Force News Detachment 12

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan -- The Navy makes up a small portion of the service member population at Misawa Air Base, and an even smaller group of Sailors work for the P-3 Orion Maintenance Squadron.

Even though their numbers are few, the work these Sailors perform is vital to keeping P-3's up and running. There's usually only one aircraft in the hangar at a time, but P-3's come from all around the Pacific Theater to be serviced at the Misawa shop.

"They can come as far as Australia, India, Brunei and Indonesia...we're spread out pretty far," said Navy Lt. Derek Burns, Detachment officer-in-charge. "Basically, we are the maintenance facility for all the P-3's throughout 7th Fleet. They'll come here to do the special inspections, so we're really a key function of the overall operation of the P-3 fleet.

The maintenance squadron is uniquely outfitted to perform those special inspections.

"Whenever we do an inspection, you can expect to see maybe 20 or 30 people at a time working on the aircraft because we have the engine systems," he said. "We do avionics, radar, and auxiliary power unit inspections, hydraulics systems. It's an overall inspection and preventive maintenance that is done on the aircraft."

The P-3 Orion is a flexible aircraft because of the types of missions it can perform. It's a propeller-driven, so it can stay on station for an extended period of time. It can also perform over land and sea missions.

"The P-3's primary role is anti-submarine warfare," said the lieutenant. "It's equipped with overboard racks where it can carry torpedoes, missiles, etc...it can also lay mines and has a magnetic-anomaly detector, which can actually detect metal deep beneath the sea. The P-3 is an extremely important aircraft for the Navy because of its flexibility."