Description

Lockheed Martin P2V NEPTUNE Nostalgic Patch

Aviators and Crew!  Enjoy this officially licensed Lockheed Martin P2V NEPTUNE Nostalgic Patch celebrating this venerable aircraft.

• 3 inches
• PVC
• US Military Aviator Owned Business
• Officially Licensed by Lockheed Martin

LOCKHEED MARTIN®, associated emblems and logos, and body designs of vehicles are either registered trademarks or
trademarks of Lockheed Martin Corporation in the USA and/or other jurisdictions, used under license by Squadron Nostalgia LLC

The Lockheed P-2 Neptune (designated P2V by the United States Navy prior to September 1962) is a maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft. It was developed for the US Navy by Lockheed to replace the Lockheed PV-1 Ventura and PV-2 Harpoon, and was replaced in turn by the Lockheed P-3 Orion. Designed as a land-based aircraft, the Neptune never made a carrier landing, but a small number were converted and deployed as carrier-launched (using JATO assist), stop-gap nuclear bombers that would have to land on shore or ditch. The type was successful in export, and saw service with several armed forces.

Prior to the introduction of the P-3 Orion in the mid-1960s, the Neptune was the primary U.S. land-based anti-submarine patrol aircraft, intended to be operated as the hunter of a ‘”Hunter-Killer” group, with destroyers employed as killers. Several features aided the P-2 in its hunter role:

Sonobuoys could be launched from a station in the aft portion of the fuselage and monitored by radio
Some models were equipped with “pointable” twin .5 in (12.70 mm) machine guns in the nose, but most had a forward observation bubble with an observer seat, a feature often seen in images.
The AN/ASQ-8 Magnetic Anomaly Detector was fitted in an extended tail, producing a paper chart. Unmarked charts were not classified, but those with annotations were classified as secret.
A belly-mounted AN/APS-20 surface-search radar enabled detection of surfaced and snorkeling submarines at considerable distances.
As the P-2 was replaced in the US Navy by the P-3A Orion in active Fleet squadrons in the early and mid-1960s, the P-2 continued to remain operational in the Naval Air Reserve through the mid-1970s, primarily in its SP-2H version. As active Fleet squadrons transitioned to the P-3B and P-3C in the mid- and late-1960s and early 1970s, the Naval Air Reserve P-2s were eventually replaced by P-3As and P-3Bs and the P-2 exited active U.S. naval service. VP-23 was the last active duty patrol squadron to operate the SP-2H, retiring its last Neptune on 20 February 1970,[6] while the last Naval Reserve patrol squadron to operate the Neptune, VP-94, retired its last SP-2H in 1978.