A U.S. Navy Lockheed EP-3B <i>Orion</i> (BuNo 149678) of Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron VQ-1, circa 1970.<br>149678 had been delivered as a P-3A to Patrol Squadron VP-44 on 29 October 1962. In May 1963, 3 P-3As (BuNo 149669, 149673, 149678) were obtained by the CIA from the U.S. Navy under Project STSPIN, as replacement aircraft for CIA's own covert operation fleet of Lockheed RB-69A <i>Neptune</i>s. Converted by Aerosystems Division of LTV at Greenville, Texas, the 3 P-3As were simply known as "black" P-3As under "Project Axial". Officially transferred from the USN to the CIA in June-July 1964, LTV Aerosystems converted the 3 aircraft to be both ELINT and COMINT platforms. The first of the 3 "black" P-3As arrived in Taiwan and was officially transferred to the ROCAF's top secret "Black Bat" Squadron on 22 June 1966. Armed with 4 AIM-9B <i>Sidewinder</i> missiles for self-defense, the 3 "black" P-3As flew peripheral missions along the PR China coast to collect SIGINT and air samples. When the project was terminated in January 1967, all 3 "black" P-3As were flown to NAS Alameda for long term storage. Two of the three aircraft (149669 and 149678) were converted into the only EP-3B versions in existence by Lockheed at Burbank in September 1967, while the third aircraft (149673) was converted by Lockheed in 1969-1970 to serve as a development aircraft for various electronic programs. The two EP-3Bs were known as "Bat Rack", owing to their short period of service with Taiwan's "Black Bat" Squadron, were issued to US Navy's VQ-1 Squadron in 1969 and deployed to Da Nang, Vietnam. Later, the two aircraft were converted to EP-3E <i>ARIES</i>, along with 10 EP-3As. 149678 was finally retired on 10 January 1987.
U.S. Navy
1970s <div style="display: none;">date QS:P,+1970-00-00T00:00:00Z/8</div>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://collections.naval.aviation.museum/emuwebdoncoms/pages/doncoms/AdvQuery.php">U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation</a> photo No. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://collections.naval.aviation.museum/emuwebdoncoms/pages/doncoms/Display.php?irn=47071&amp;QueryPage=%2Femuwebdoncoms%2Fpages%2Fdoncoms%2FAdvQuery.php">2011.023.114</a>