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USMC No more WSOs

Hair Warrior said:
www.thedrive.com

Marines Winding Down Weapon Systems Officer Position, F/A-18Ds To Fly With Pilot Only

The long-established Weapon Systems Officer position is in the twilight of its existence within the Marine Corps tactical jet community.
www.thedrive.com www.thedrive.com
Interesting article.

Dumb question: Why not put Navy NFOs in the back seat of F/A-18Ds flown by Marine aviators?
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I believe because the Deltas are gonna Sundown soon, and the composite squadron concept might be a way to get more up-jets. They're just not making anymore WSOs at the RAG.

The Navy never operationally used any Deltas either, so none of the Navy WSOs have time in the Delta. Hypothetically it could be done with how similar the cockpits could be (wouldn't know), but that would be some Jake Grafton in The Intruders level stuff.
 
Marine NFO platforms are going away. There's just a delta between the cessation of Marine NFO production and the sundowning of the D models.
 
I wouldn't say the -D and the -F are completely different airplanes...there's obviously similarities....but you're talking about a significant leap in technology, mission sets, sensor capabilities, etc. It would require an FRS syllabus to say the least.
 
So besides the WSO's that are just leaving the service, in general what options to WSO's have that desire to stay in the USMC, or is a more accurate question what have the USMC WSO's been doing that you have known?
 
NavyOffRec said:
So besides the WSO's that are just leaving the service, in general what options to WSO's have that desire to stay in the USMC, or is a more accurate question what have the USMC WSO's been doing that you have known?
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Some are still flying. Some are going SNA, UAS, Acquisitions, FAO/RAO, NPS, Air Officer, and various other odd ball jobs. The world is wide open if they want to stay in the Corps. There’s actually a good amount of opportunity to do other things on the inside if they want. They just have to find another PMOS to stay competitive for promotion. If that’s the route they intend on going.
 
NavyOffRec said:
So besides the WSO's that are just leaving the service, in general what options to WSO's have that desire to stay in the USMC, or is a more accurate question what have the USMC WSO's been doing that you have known?
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From talking to a Marine in my class in NFO Advanced it doesn't appear like there is any standardized path that they are giving WSOs, at least not that they have told him about. Unfortunately he has a weird eye issue that is a DQ for SNA otherwise he would have switched a long time ago. I think part of the problem is that the date for the sundown of the -18D keeps moving around which makes it hard to say where he will be in his career once that decision needs to be made. I think his personal preference would be to lat xfer into the Navy and be a Super Hornet WSO, but I don't have a clue how realistic of an option that would be.

At the end of 2018 the USMC reassigned most of their SNFOs to SNA. There were a few that were already past API that were medically unable to switch for one reason or another and now they are the last batch heading through flight school at TW-6. I think there are 7 or 8 total at various points in the pipeline. The last one will probably wing late next year.
 
Hair Warrior said:
When did the Navy last fly the -D variant Hornet?
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They never did, only ones you’ll find with Navy on the side are probably at TPS or one of the VX squadrons. Navy only bought single seat Legacy’s to replace the F-4s and A-7s. The Rhinos came around to replace the F-14s.
 
Flash said:
Pretty sure we still fly D's in the RAG,
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Not sure why we would do that when we only teach E and F models (which can be configured with controls in the back). 129 has a few of these. I imagine the Rhino RAGs have them too. My guess is that if the Rhino RAGs have any Ds, they aren't used for student syllabus events. It's a completely different T/M/S.
 
Brett327 said:
Not sure why we would do that when we only teach E and F models (which can be configured with controls in the back). 129 has a few of these. I imagine the Rhino RAGs have them too. My guess is that if the Rhino RAGs have any Ds, they aren't used for student syllabus events. It's a completely different T/M/S.
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I'm pretty sure all off the B's and D's went to -101. The rear cockpit was configured as pilot trainers, and while you can convert them back and forth, I'm not sure that would make sense.

Huffs09 said:
From talking to a Marine in my class in NFO Advanced it doesn't appear like there is any standardized path that they are giving WSOs, at least not that they have told him about. Unfortunately he has a weird eye issue that is a DQ for SNA otherwise he would have switched a long time ago. I think part of the problem is that the date for the sundown of the -18D keeps moving around which makes it hard to say where he will be in his career once that decision needs to be made. I think his personal preference would be to lat xfer into the Navy and be a Super Hornet WSO, but I don't have a clue how realistic of an option that would be.

At the end of 2018 the USMC reassigned most of their SNFOs to SNA. There were a few that were already past API that were medically unable to switch for one reason or another and now they are the last batch heading through flight school at TW-6. I think there are 7 or 8 total at various points in the pipeline. The last one will probably wing late next year.
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They'll do the same thing the ECMOs are doing as their airplane has gone away...
 
Brett327 said:
Not sure why we would do that when we only teach E and F models (which can be configured with controls in the back). 129 has a few of these. I imagine the Rhino RAGs have them too. My guess is that if the Rhino RAGs have any Ds, they aren't used for student syllabus events. It's a completely different T/M/S.
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No, they aren't. We had a briefing at 106 about 3 months ago and it came up that they still have Hornets (not sure if just A/C's or B/D's too) for instructor proficiency and other stuff, and aren't planning to get rid of them anytime soon.
 
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