Media Galleries : Reconnaissance And Patrol

Rather than replace its aircraft, US Customs and Border Protection decided to keep its P-3 fleet flying through the P-3 Mid-Life Upgrade, or MLU, program. CBP is currently on contract to have twelve of its P-3s go through the MLU program. MLU provides replacement structural parts that will keep the aircraft flying for up to another twenty-five years of service.

Images of the Lockheed P2V Neptune

The German Navy received P-3 aircraft from the Netherlands in 2005 and 2006. By 2007, they were flying operational missions with the Orion for NATO.

Collection of photos of A-12, M21, and D-21 aircraft.

Origins of the SR 71 date back to the late 1950s when legendary Lockheed designer and Skunk Works founder Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson proposed a high speed, high altitude alternative to supplement the Lockheed-built U-2 subsonic reconnaissance plane that would soon become vulnerable to Soviet missiles. As a result, the Blackbird family was initiated with the A 12, which first flew in April 1962. The single-seat A-12s were the smallest of the Blackbird series. Designed for reconnaissance missions, the A-12 spawned a two-place, armed version designated YF-12A, which was proposed as an interceptor. Although never adopted for this role, the YF-12s made important contributions as research aircraft, serving for more than a decade with NASA. It was the first aircraft capable of sustaining speeds above Mach 3.

The U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft continues to serve as America’s Sentinel of Peace. Current U-2s are equipped with the latest, most advanced signals intelligence, measurement and signature intelligence, and imagery intelligence sensors in the Air Force inventory.

The US Navy retired the last S-3 Viking carrier-based multimission aircraft from fleet service in ceremonies at NAS Jacksonville, Florida, on 30 January, closing out the aircraft's operational career.

Accompanying image gallery for the Code One Magazine article "Orions Wet And Dry" that appeared in the First Quarter 2009 issue of Code One.

Now, the U-2 carries imaging and signals intelligence sensors that are as sophisticated as any in the US inventory. Over Iraq during Desert Storm, then over Bosnia, Kosovo, and most recently over Afghanistan, these high-flying eyes and ears have proved indispensable. In the obscure world of aerial reconnaissance, most of the attention, and most of the praise, has gone to other platforms.

Carmine Vito is the only U-2 pilot to fly directly over Moscow. His flight was the third operational flight over potentially hostile territory, or what the pilots called “hot” flights.