One of the US Customs and Border Protection P-3 Orion Airborne Early Warning, or AEW, aircraft reached the 30,000 flight hour mark during a mission on 6 July 2010. The milestone came while the aircraft was on an airspace deconfliction mission over the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. First delivered to the US Navy in 1966, it was acquired by Customs in June 1990 and reconfigured for Airborne Early Warning duty. The Orion, based at the Customs facility in Jacksonville, Florida, has been flown on missions for the State, Justice, and Energy Departments as well as for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It is expected to receive the P-3 Mid-Life Upgrade program improvements in FY2014.
