Proto Thema revealed that the six P-3B jets that Greece is willing to pay Lockheed Martin 500 million dollar to renovate are sitting abandoned at the Hellenic Aviation base in Tanagra and the facilities of Elefsina, west of Athens. The serial numbers (buno) of the aircraft at the base show that they are the ones in questions. Manufactured almost 50 years ago, two were manufactured in 1966 and the other four were constructed by Lockheed in 1967.

The agreement with Lockheed Martin will upgrade the P-3B “Orion” turbo props, currently sitting like piles of junk, so that they are flight-worthy for another 15,000 hours of flight that could amount to 25 additional years. In other words, the government is willing to pay 500 mln dollars to make aircraft that are almost 50 years old flight-worthy so that they could fly until the are around 80 years of age since the date of construction.

The upgrade will run for another seven and a half years.

Noteworthy is the fact that the aircraft were being considered for recycling as they are covered in rust. Photographs in Sunday’s Proto Thema show the extent of the damage.