MILITARY PILOT DESCRIBED NMAC AT 3000 FT WITH UNREPORTED VFR AIRCRAFT WHILE CONDUCTING PRACTICE APPROACH PROCEDURES AT NIP; VOICING CONCERN REGARDING TRAFFIC CONGESTION IN THE AREA.

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P-3C ACFT WAS CLRED DIRECT MADEN AT 3000 FT MSL AFTER A MISSED APCH CONDUCTED FOR TRAINING AT NAS JACKSONVILLE. UPON REACHING MADEN; THE P-3 CONDUCTED A R TURN TO PARALLEL PRIOR TO MAKING A R TURN TO COMMENCE THE FULL ARCING TACAN APCH FOR RWY 27. UPON COMMENCING THE APCH AND BEING ESTABLISHED INBOUND ON THE 189 DEG RADIAL AT 17 MI; AN UNKNOWN CIVIL ACFT FLEW OUT OF A CLOUD APPROX 200 FT IN FRONT OF THE P-3 FLYING EBOUND. P-3 HAD NO TIME TO CONDUCT EVASIVE MANEUVERS AND CONTINUED ON COURSE. APCH CTL WAS INVOLVED WITH A MODERATE TFC LOAD AND STATED THAT THEY HAD NOT SEEN THE UNKNOWN CIVIL ACFT PRIOR TO THE INCIDENT AND ONLY HAD INTERMITTENT RADAR CONTACT AFTER BEING NOTIFIED OF ITS POS. THE UNKNOWN CIVIL ACFT WAS NOT TALKING ON ANY OF THE P-3'S MONITORED FREQS (VHF AND UHF TUNED TO APCH) AND WAS NOT XMITTING ON A XPONDER; THEREFORE; WE ASSUMED IT TO BE VFR. NO DAMAGE OR LOSS OF LIFE WAS EXPERIENCED. I BELIEVE THAT THERE WERE 2 CAUSES OF THE NMAC: 1) CIVIL ACFT WAS OPERATING IN CLASS E AIRSPACE VFR AT 3000 FT. WHILE THIS IS ALLOWED AS PER THE FAR/AIM; IT DID NOT REMAIN WITHIN SPECIFIED DISTANCES FROM CLOUDS. THIS AREA OF FLYING (JUST S OF NAS JAX AND THE SURROUNDING AREA) CONTINUES TO BECOME MORE CONGESTED WITH THE IMMINENT ARR OF MORE NAS JACKSONVILLE BASED P-3 SQUADRONS AND HELI SQUADRONS. ALTHOUGH MIL SQUADRONS ARE AWARE OF THE RISING TFC IMPLICATIONS; CIVILIAN OPERATORS MAY NOT BE QUITE AS KNOWLEDGEABLE OF THE RISKS INVOLVED IN OPERATING VFR IN THE AREA SURROUNDING NAS NIP AND VQQ. MY SQUADRON IS CURRENTLY INVOLVED IN TRYING TO GET A COMMON VFR FREQ FOR THE AREA IN ORDER FOR MIL SQUADRON'S TO DECONFLICT; AND OUR HOPE WOULD BE TO HAVE CIVILIAN VFR TFC ALSO CALL THEIR POS (SIMILAR TO UNICOM PROCS). WE ARE ALSO INVESTIGATING THE POSSIBILITY OF A PERMANENT NOTAM OR SOMETHING SIMILAR TO NOTIFY TFC OF THE DANGERS OF OPERATING AROUND NAS JACKSONVILLE. WE WOULD EVENTUALLY LIKE TO ESTABLISH AN ALERT AREA AROUND NAS JAX SIMILAR TO THE ALERT AREA AROUND PENSACOLA; FL. 2) ATC WAS UNABLE TO DISCERN THE PRESENCE OF THE LIGHT CIVIL ACFT. THIS IS TROUBLING DUE TO THE RELATIVELY HIGH DENSITY LIGHT CIVIL IN AND AROUND JACKSONVILLE; FL. ATC SEEMS TO BE SATURATED AND/OR THEIR RADAR IS NOT AS DISCERNING AS IT MAY NEED TO BE IN ORDER TO SAFELY CTL THE AIRSPACE. WE ARE CONCERNED; HOWEVER; WITH THE PERCEIVED LACK OF QUALITY FLT FOLLOWING OR THE POSITIVE CTL IN AND AROUND NAS JACKSONVILLE.