Big Ocean and little ships make finding "Mother" difficult sometimes

[pilot811]

I'm sure someone has asked it before but I couldn't find it and the search function was no help. After the aircraft takes off, flies around and then needs to come back and land how do they find the aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean? Is there a TACAN on the carrier, do they use GPS, or something else?

Kevin

 

[Uncle Fester]

I'm sure someone has asked it before but I couldn't find it and the search function was no help. After the aircraft takes off, flies around and then needs to come back and land how do they find the aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean? Is there a TACAN on the carrier, do they use GPS, or something else?

Kevin

TACAN. GPS doesn't do much good if your airfield is moving.

 

[pilot811]

GPS doesn't do much good if your airfield is moving.

^Good point. I wasn't sure if the GPS could identify a moving airfield such as a carrier.

 

[Uncle Fester]

^Good point. I wasn't sure if the GPS could identify a moving airfield such as a carrier.

That's not how GPS works. Remember that the airfields in a GPS are simply waypoints programmed into the system. Moving airfields isn't something most aviators would need, and the GPS systems I've seen were COTS software. There was discussion of modifying the Garmins in the Hawkeye to allow for moving waypoints, which would allow you to shoot a GPS approach...I don't know where that program is at now, or what the classification is, so I'll leave it at that.

Short answer: we use TACAN at the Boat.

 

[CommodoreMid]

Follow up question: if the civil aviation side is getting rid of things like VORs, TACANs, etc., what will the Navy do? Just keep TACANs for the boat?

 

[wlawr005]

You can program a moving waypoint into the 60S nav software, but it doesn't do you much good if the boat deviates from the course/speed you programmed in. Navy will always use some form of TACAN, I don't know of any other way to find the boat.

 

[highside7r]

The SH60F/H has a nice feature within the software called "TACAN track", where you can dial up Mother's freq and the software will update her position. Normally works pretty good on those dark starboard delta nights, or just flip down the NVG's.

 

[llnick2001]

The SH60F/H has a nice feature within the software called "TACAN track", where you can dial up Mother's freq and the software will update her position. Normally works pretty good on those dark starboard delta nights, or just flip down the NVG's.

Why the S doesn't have it is beyond me.

 

[Brett327]

The SH60F/H has a nice feature within the software called "TACAN track", where you can dial up Mother's freq and the software will update her position. Normally works pretty good on those dark starboard delta nights, or just flip down the NVG's.

Prowler nav system has a similar "TACAN Intercept" function, which is money for marshal. You can type in your marshal radial/DME and it will costantly update that waypoint.

Brett

 

[MIDNJAC]

Follow up question: if the civil aviation side is getting rid of things like VORs, TACANs, etc., what will the Navy do? Just keep TACANs for the boat?

Do you realize how long they have been talking about getting rid of VOR and TACAN stations? I'm sure the time is nearing, but I don't see it happening that quickly. We still have NDB's scattered around the PNW and AK, and that has been an obsolete system (aside from their use in parallel with ILS) for longer than I have been alive, short of maybe island use.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Shit, they're just now talking about getting rid of LORAN. Nobody's used that for years.

 

[HeyJoe]

You can program a moving waypoint into the 60S nav software, but it doesn't do you much good if the boat deviates from the course/speed you programmed in. Navy will always use some form of TACAN, I don't know of any other way to find the boat.

JPALS cometh (w/DGPS) and Link 16 provideth alternatives to TACAN, but the E-2 is usually there to help lost souls.

 

[Gatordev]

JPALS cometh (w/DGPS) and Link 16 provideth alternatives to TACAN, but the E-2 is usually there to help lost souls.

But not for everyone (Link 16 nor E-2). But wait, you say, the Romeo has Link 16 (I think)! Sadly there will still be plenty of legacy birds flying around that have nothing but Tacan and an internal nav system.

 

[HeyJoe]

But not for everyone (Link 16 nor E-2). But wait, you say, the Romeo has Link 16 (I think)! Sadly there will still be plenty of legacy birds flying around that have nothing but Tacan and an internal nav system.

Which is still better than the intrepid souls that went before us with Moboards and the rudimentary system in play during WWII and thereafter.

 

[Gatordev]

Which is still better than the intrepid souls that went before us with Moboards and the rudimentary systme in play during WWII and thereafter.

Or the British, who still use said method. I didn't mean for it to sound like using Tacan is a problem. Quite the contrary. I meant it as an age old system that keeps working just like we need (when the shoes remember to turn it on).