11/30/2010. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "In 1976 two P-3Cs were procured as weather reconnaissance aircraft for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the Department of Commerce. Produced under USN BuNos. 159773 and 159875, these aircraft were fitted with special sensors (which replaced the ASW equipment) in a broader tail boom, a ventral radome, and boom projecting forward of the nose on the starboard side.

Designated WP-3D, and registered and named N42RF Kermit the Frog and N43RF Miss Piggy respectively, these aircraft are based in Florida and directed by NOAA's Aircraft Operations Center at MacDill AFB, Tampa. A third Orion, former USN P-3C BuNo. 161330, was registered N44RF on May 24, 2006. Demilitarized, it is also lacking the broader tail boom, the ventral radome, and the nose boom."