The third US Customs and Border Protection P-3 Orion to go through the Mid-Lift Upgrade, or MLU, program was delivered on 23 August 2011 from the Lockheed Martin facility in Greenville, South Carolina. The MLU kit, which includes new wings, replaces all fatigue-life-limiting structures with new components and incorporates a new corrosion-resistant metal alloy. The MLU kit removes current aircraft flight restrictions and extends the structural service life of the P-3 up to 15,000 hours, adding more than twenty years of operational service. Currently, fourteen of the sixteen Customs P-3s are scheduled to receive the MLU kit. Deliveries will run through 2015. To date, six operators from four nations have ordered seventy-one MLU kits.
