Patrol Squadron (VP) 40 conducted training exercises with Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron (VQ) 1 onboard Naval Air Station (NAS) Fallon early February 2017.

VP-40 sent a P-3C Orion aircraft and crew to provide its unique intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) skill set.

The P-3C is able to provide an accurate picture of the battle space to deploy airstrikes and provide warnings of threats to friendly forces, said Ensign Eric Longabaugh, VP-40's intelligence officer. These types of exercises expose maritime air crews to operating in a contested environment, conducting strikes, and working with other ISR platforms safely and effectively.

"VP-40 is providing our skill set as an ISR platform in concert with VQ-1 in order to effectively integrate the various inputs from all ISR platforms into one coherent, accurate, and timely picture of the battle space for the carrier air wing," said Longabaugh.

E-2C Hawkeyes, F/A-18 Super Hornets, and E/A-18 Growlers are some of the aircraft from Carrier Air Wing 11 which also participated in the exercises.

"Every day we get to do different scenarios -- sometimes air to air, sometimes air to ground," said Chief Petty Officer Geof Stanford, a non-acoustic operator attached to VP-40. "It's not that we are doing something we have never experienced before, it's that we normally do not get to play with the F-18s."

Many patrol and reconnaissance squadrons are currently transitioning from the P-3C aircraft to the P-8 Poseidon, but the P-3C is still being used effectively in exercises like these held at Fallon.

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