USN Another call to "bring back S-3's" (Vikings are Zombies)

[707guy]

Tyler Goaway strikes again... "The Compelling Case For Turning S-3 Vikings Into The Navy's New MQ-25 Tanker Drone"

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...-the-navys-new-mq-25-tanker-drone?xid=fbshare

"The idea of retooling the mothballed S-3 Viking fleet into unmanned drones popped up in a twitter conversation recently on our friend Stephen Trimble's page. At first, I had the feeling of deja-vu, but then I remembered I proposed doing just that six years ago and brought it up again two years later."

 

[Jim123]

That article is dated five days late- last Sunday morning would have been perfect.

 

[wink]

There are some good reasons not to reserect the War Hoover. We have heard them here. So the question is, why does the proposal keep coming up? No other platform , except maybe the OV-10, has had so many zombie proposals. Why?

 

[jmcquate]

Taxied past a Hoover on the NASA ramp in Cleveland today.

 

[707guy]

Taxied past a Hoover on the NASA ramp in Cleveland today.

Have not seen their S-3 flying in a while. That parts bird has been sitting out there for a long time.

 

[Brett327]

There are some good reasons not to reserect the War Hoover. We have heard them here. So the question is, why does the proposal keep coming up? No other platform , except maybe the OV-10, has had so many zombie proposals. Why?

I think the military blogger crowd recycles the same drivel so they can publish more stories. Same way that Men's Health recycles their "10 easy steps to killer abs" type stories.

I don't think there have been any serious proposals to resurrect the S-3 from within DoD that have gotten traction.

 

[Jim123]

Taxied past a Hoover on the NASA ramp in Cleveland today.

Looks in my mirror not a handler in sight.

 

[Swanee]

There are some good reasons not to reserect the War Hoover. We have heard them here. So the question is, why does the proposal keep coming up? No other platform , except maybe the OV-10, has had so many zombie proposals. Why?

Nostalgia. The resurrection of the S-3, the OV-10, and the F-14 are all ideas from Naval Aviation's 'Member Berries.

 

[wink]

I dunno, it has to be more than ordinary nostalgia. You don't hear much about the F-14 coming back. If you applied simple nostalgia and the rather shallow analysis used in Viking come back scenarios, you could argue for the F-111, F-4, OH-58, SR-71, A-10... oh wait, the A-10 is less walking dead then just plain immortal. Can't kill it.

 

[Swanee]

I dunno, it has to be more than ordinary nostalgia. You don't hear much about the F-14 coming back. If you applied simple nostalgia and the rather shallow analysis used in Viking come back scenarios, you could argue for the F-111, F-4, OH-58, SR-71, A-10... oh wait, the A-10 is less walking dead then just plain immortal. Can't kill it.

I guess the next step would be the general hate and discontent for UAS. It's fairly tough and demoralizing to think that a machine can do something better than what a human can, especially when that human takes a lot of pride in and defines himself by the the years of hard work that it took to develop said skill.

 

[Uncle Fester]

It’s interesting to me that the Hoov has a lot more fans in its afterlife than it ever seemed to have when it was flying.

As for why the Zombie Hoov won’t die, I think it’s just another manifestation of the Navy’s general willingness to vastly underestimate the problems with an idea when they really, really want to do something. Though you’re right that outside of the airplane geek blogs, this idea’s never gotten beyond the PowerPoint level of interest in DoD.

Ironically, it was that same ‘hand-wave away the problems’ instinct that led to the S-3 being retired prematurely in the first place. “The Air Wing doesn’t really need organic ELINT, the Rhino will be able to do all the recovery tanking, and anyway F-35 will be FOC by 2010, so we’re all agreed that we can meet our budget-cutting goals by sundowning the Hoov.”

It was a mistake to retire the S-3/ES-3. Doesn’t make trying to dust them off now a good idea. At the end of the day, they’re 80s-vintage design jets thatve been sitting in the desert for over a decade now.

 

[Farva01]

I dunno, it has to be more than ordinary nostalgia. You don't hear much about the F-14 coming back.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/th...wish-bring-back-the-old-f-14-tomcat-the-25206

 

[webmaster]

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/th...wish-bring-back-the-old-f-14-tomcat-the-25206

Can we bring back the P3 also while we are at it? Scratch that, I'll just go down to DRMO and pickup a used one and a couple dozen RGBs and valve housings while I am at it.

 

[nittany03]

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/th...wish-bring-back-the-old-f-14-tomcat-the-25206

Sigh. I’ll post it again . . .

 

[wink]

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/th...wish-bring-back-the-old-f-14-tomcat-the-25206

Oh, I have seen this sort of thing before. I meant to say, "You don't hear as much about brining the F-14 back." Maybe the Tomcat will now have it's time in the sundown. Fester made the point I have been grappling with. How is it the Viking seemingly has more fans now than when in the fleet? Conversely, the F-14 was the face of Naval Aviation, movie star and all. You can certainly appreciate the nostalgia. Fester may have hit it. The Turkey was done. There was a creditable, though not perfect, replacement. No such thing with the Hoover. It can be argued the S-3 was only just maturing in the early 90s. And while the Tomcat missions are reasonably covered, same can't be said for the Viking.

I am a fan of the War Hoover, but not as a USN revival. Love to see them used as fire fighting tankers, for contract refueling like was done with the Whale, or to park in KCGZ hangar #45 with my other two planes .