During 1959, the remaining eleven P2V-5s (A89-308 had crashed) were flown back to Lockheed at Ontario, California for the fitment of Westinghouse J-34 jet engines in pods under the wings. Thus modified, the aircraft were known as P2V-5F (also Mark 4). The Status Cards do not accurately record the return dates but the modification appears to have averaged three months for each aircraft.

During 1960 and again in 1961, all eleven remaining P2V-5s were cycled through the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) factory at Avalon, Victoria for the incorporation of Mods 208 and 201. The exact nature of these mods is unknown. However, it is understood that Mod 208 may relate to the installation of a fire extinguishing system, the need for which was demonstrated by the loss of A89-308 on 4th February 1959. The following table lists the relevant aircraft movements. These dates generally refer to movements at CAC although some refer to movements at 11SQN. Given the relative proximity of Richmond and Avalon, these dates are often the same anyway. The dates in the following table were extracted from the RAAF status cards. It should be noted that the first modification recorded on these cards is the Mk 4 conversion (the jet pod mod) for which the aircraft returned to Lockheed in the U.S. There is no record of the Mk 2 conversion (removal of nose and tail gun positions) or the Mk 3 conversion (removal of the dorsal gun position). It would appear that, despite the previous loss of A89-308 to an engine fire, the remaining 11 P2V-5s were flown to the U.S. and back before fire extinguishing systems were fitted in Australia (Mod 208?). This surprising sequence of events has been confirmed by someone who was with the squadron at the time.