Army AP2E
-- As if it was pulled out of a scene from a James Bond movie complete with covert ops and spy planes, one Army Aviation aircraft played a vital role as the eyes and ears over the skies of Vietnam
Back during the Vietnam War, the Army Security Agency basically ran an operation where they were using U-8 [Seminole} aircraft to monitor low-power radio transmissions and other signals -- it was a very covert program," he said. "This program was designed to listen for communications in the field to determine what the enemy was doing and be able to monitor that without them knowing it."
Since the Army didn't have a large, fixed-wing aircraft of its own, it eventually turned to the Navy, which had been operating P-2 Neptunes for some time as long-range, anti-submarine patrol aircraft.
In 1966, it was decided that the Navy would give the Army 12 P-2s that would be retrofitted to fit the Army's needs, and they were designated AP-2 Neptunes in the Army inventory.
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