Jens Schymura and Holger Stüben visited the Airday 2006 at Nordholz to say Good Bye to the Atlantic

The 2006 Airday at Nordholz Naval Air Station marks important events within the German Navy. First of all, this years Open Day is part of several presentations of the German Navy to celebrate their 50th anniversary.

After holding the last Open Day in 2000, the Marinefliegergeschwader 3, Naval Air Wing 3,  at Nordholz was celebrating this years Airday on 26^th of August with two special coloured birds, one Sea Lynx Mk.88A and one Br.1150 Atlantic. This event was also used to say good bye to the Breguet Atlantic after more than 40 years in service and to welcome the ‘new’ boys in town, the Lockheed P-3. The Maritime Patrol Version of the Atlantic, Br.1150 MPA will be withdrawn from service by the end of 2006. Two Atlantic SIGINT (Signal Intelligence) will serve until about 2010, when it could be replaced by the unmanned Global Hawk UAV. The long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft P-3C CUP Orion is the successor of the Breguet Atlantic. Eight modernized former Netherlands Navy machines will be based at Nordholz by the end of this year. On 18 May 2006 the first P-3C was officially handed over to the German Navy. Also the P-3 uses the most modern avionic systems but due to the likewise already high age of the P-3 they also will be only a temporary solution.