Korean S-3 sale expected to go through in June/Vietnam interested

The sale of 12 S-3 Viking aircraft, with an option for 8 more is expected to get final approval in June, with the first aircraft delivered in 2018. The S-3 was used by the US Navy as a carrier borne ASW platform, until they were retired. The last three were retired recently, and all of them have been in storage. In addition to the South Korean sale, two Asian nations, one identified as Vietnam, as well as one Latin American country have expressed interest in buying more of the aircraft.

Lockheed Martin expects that the procurement of its S-3 Viking maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft by South Korea will pave the way for further sales of the type to at least three other operators, a company official told IHS Jane's on 30 March.

Speaking at the FIDAE Airshow in Santiago, Clay Fearnow, Lockheed Martin's director of maritime patrol programmes, said that the approval that is anticipated in the coming months of the sale to the Republic of Korea Navy (RoKN) could open the way for further sales to two other Asian nations (one of which he identified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam), and one South American nation.

"We are talking to three other countries [besides South Korea] with regard to the S-3. If the South Korean programme is approved, then we expect the aircraft to really take off," Fearnow said, adding that interested nations are waiting on the South Korean deal to be finalised before committing.

www.janes.com...

Carrier versions?

a reply to: Blackfinger

They're all carrier versions, but will be land based.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Why were they removed from service, originally? Age? Obsolescence? Or something new and shiny came along?

I guess what I'm asking is...is it still a viable platform?

a reply to: seagull

Yes they are, with some work, which will be done before they head over. Just before they retired them Lockheed performed a full scale fatigue test that extended the airframe life to 11,000 hours.

They lost the ASW mission after the collapse of the Soviet Union so they became a jack of all trades platform that didn't really have a specialty role anymore. They were fit into a number of different missions, and were retired to make way for new airframes. Which, IMO, was stupid. They were the only aircraft their size that would come through Hickam on the way too and from Japan without tanker support. They didn't have an IFR capability, because they didn't need it. They had a ferry range of over 3,300 nmi.

They were still pretty capable machines and one that I can't help feeling the Navy could well end up regretting retiring. The extra legs and loiter time they have over a helo adds so much to the ASW side and pushes the bubble around a CSG. IIRC they've retasked some SSNs with the ASW roll