The P-3C Orion is the flying eye of the German Navy’s fleet. Eight P-3C Orions belong to the Naval Air Wing 3 “Graf Zeppelin”. Even if they don’t look like it, they are fighters and designed for submarine hunting. Mostly, however, the P-3C Orion are used for long-range reconnaissance. They monitor huge areas of ocean from the air. In addition to contacts over water, this includes submarines and limited objects on land. The aircraft can engage underwater targets with Mk46 torpedoes, which they carry in an internal weapons bay in the forward part of the fuselage.

Radar, laser rangefinder and the MX-20HD infrared video camera combination make the large reconnaissance aircraft the “flying eye” of the navy. The P-3C Orion uses different sonar buoys to hunt submarines. It can listen passively or actively emit sonar waves to find enemy submarines. The buoys also measure water temperature, salinity, and other parameters to determine the water quality in a lake area.

The Orion is also equipped with a magnetic anomaly detector in the extended tail. This sensor can detect a submarine in the earth’s magnetic field under the aircraft. Because the instrument is very sensitive, electromagnetic radiation can interfere with it. It is therefore located in the aircraft’s fibreglass tail spine, far from other electronic components in the aircraft.

There are at least eleven crew: The pilot and co-pilot, a tactical coordinator, and a navigation officer who simultaneously handles radio communications. Systems technicians, shipboard mechanics, and three surface and two underwater operators complete the crew.