As promised, here is a picture I took of a Super Hornet next to a Hornet on the Big E last year.
You can clearly see the physical differences between the two aircraft. I am guessing those guys are going to be fired up when they start flying tanker missions on a regular basis…
Of course, the other thing you gotta wonder about is when the ASW version of the Super Hornet will come out. I guess that we will have to teach fighter pilots how to drop sonobuoys and torpedoes…
LOL
Haven’t you heard? There is no ASW threat.
Or so the TACAIR community thinks……
That’s frickin’ hilarious. I guess the S-3 guys and gals won’t be the butt end of the Air Wing anymore. Of course, the super hornets won’t call it “tanking,” they’ll have to come up with a more tactical name.
Okay, for us non-air-litterates…
Yes, I see they are different, but which is the Super Hornet the front or the back?
Dint you hear? The #4 seat SENSO has the JEZ gear. Has special ten-point dividers and everything (dating myself, ain’t I?).
This week, heard a 4-star say (for the 6th time in three years) say that ASW is absolutely his biggest worry.
Just hope we can wait for the Pee-Eight.
VR-
-SJBill
Lawrence – sorry. The Super Hornet is inboard (front of the picture) while the Hornet is outboard (behind the Super Hornet).
SJ Bill – yeah, but will the Aviation ASW community be allowed to use them for ASW or will they have to do everything else like the P-3s do now? And will we have enough of them?
ASW? That’s what our attack subs are for. Aircraft were never really good at it anyway, particularly in a littoral environment.
The A-12 fiasco, choosing the so-called “Super Hornet” over an improved strike version of the Tomcat, and the gutting of the S-3 community will go down as three of the worst things to happen to American naval aviation since Tailhook.
The A-12 cancellation and choosing Super Hornet severely limited the range that carrier aircraft have to strike inland targets, limiting the utility of aircraft carriers, period. The lack of fixed-wing carrier-borne ASW assets also severely restricts the flexibility a commander has to respond to submerged threats. S-3′s could reach out farther and faster than helo’s ever could and made up the first line of a CVBG’s ASW defense. A sub is the best ASW platform, but there’s only one (or maybe two) assigned to a CVBG at any moment and they are often tasked to do various other jobs as their command sees fit.
The S-3 guys won’t be laughing, but I’m sure the irony will not be lost on them when the first American carrier takes a torpedo in the side from a Chinese or Iranian submarine.
The Navy simply lost focus in the nineties, starting with their ass-kicking (PR-wise) they received from the USAF during Desert Storm.