Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!lll-winken!sun-barr!newstop!sun!amdcad!amdcad!military From: ab3o+@andrew.cmu.edu (Allan Bourdius) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Carrier Ops in the Gulf Message-ID: <1991Apr4.042639.13162@amd.com> Date: 3 Apr 91 13:24:34 GMT References: <1991Apr3.024604.23928@amd.com> Sender: military@amd.com Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Lines: 40 Approved: military@amd.com From: Allan Bourdius >2) It used to be common practice for a carrier to fly off some of it's S-3 >Vikings to Sicily when operating in the central Med.. This relieved deck >space for easier operations of other planes. Did the carriers in the Gulf >do something similar with their Vikings? Perhaps basing them out of >Bahrain, UAE or Oman? [9 lines of quoted text trimmed --CDR] All S-3A/B's have been equipped with an air-refueling package (according to one of my instructors, LT Michael P. Pitney, USN, an S-3 NFO) so I expect the bulk of their duty during DS would have been tanking up the fighters and bombers for their runs into the beach. I don't know if they were based off the carriers or off land. The S-3 *can* carry conventional bombs, but has no bombsight. The only conventional bombs they carry with any hope of hitting a target are Rockeye cluster munitions. They use them if they catch a Soviet SSG/SSGN that is on the surface and can't submerge until it fires its missiles. The S-3B can carry Harpoon, which would suggest that it could carry the SLAM as well. The FLIR pod is a detection system only and has nothing to do with aiming smart weapons, except giving the pilot/weapons officer the means of identifying his target in darkness. S-3's use FLIR mainly to detect submarines on the surface. Also, the S-3 is the only USN carrier based aircraft besides the E-2 and the C-2 that cannot carry Sidewinder AAM's for self defense. The USS Lexington is to be replaced by the USS Forrestal sometime within the next year or two. This will probably happen when the USS George Washington (ahead of schedule and under budget!) is commissioned. The Forrestal would be redesignated AVT 59. I hope this answers some of your questions. -- Allan Bourdius [MIDN 3/C (Marine Option)/Brother, Phi Kappa Theta Fraternity] ab3o+@andrew.cmu.edu or Box 4719, 5125 Margaret Morrison St., Pgh., PA 15213 Anything controversial in this post/mail are my own opinions, got it?!