An anti-submarine bomber, the Lockheed Neptune was designed during the Second World War. The Neptune was built between 1944 and 1956 and is one of the greatest successes of the American aircraft manufacturer Lockheed. It was used by the US Navy during the Korean War and in Vietnam. At the beginning of the 1950s, the French Navy bought the P2V-6 (31 aircraft) and PV2-7 (33 aircraft) versions of this twin-engine propeller plane. The Neptunes were deployed to the Lartigue base in French Algeria from 1953, where they were used for maritime surveillance. The last French PV2-7 flew in the Pacific until 1984.