Seahawks

[vegita1220]

So how many variants of the Seahawk are in USN service or are planned to enter USN service?

If I've got this straight, it's Bravos, Foxtrots, Hotels, and Romeos. Is this right?

 

[Gatordev]

It's actually Bravos, Foxtrots, Hotels, and Sierras. Foxtrots and Hotels are on the carrier. Foxtrots supposedly do ASW, but mostly do SAR. Hotels do CSAR and VBSS. Of course these are all the primary missions...everyone can do SAR/Medevac/Vertrep and the Foxtrots can do some VBSS. Both Hotels and Foxtrots are part of the same squadron.

Bravos operate off the small boys (primarily, but there are exceptions). The primary mission is ASW and ASuW (surface survellance). Again, we all do SAR/Medevac/Vertrep. The Bravo has a ton of avionics on it, so we can do other secondary missions like Comm relay, plus it's used as a Sniper platform during VBSS a lot of times.

The Sierra is actually not a Seahawk, but is a modified Blackhawk. It is replacing the -46s and will eventually replace the Hotel (from what I understand). It's referred to as the KnightHawk, after the original Sea Knight (H-46).

The Romeo is supposed to be the panacea of rotary naval aviation. It was also supposed to be online by 2003...2005...oh wait, 2008. It will replace the Bravo and Foxtrot, and most HSL squadrons will start to deploy as a squadron to the carrier and then det out, unlike now, where dets deploy from shore.

 

[vegita1220]

Oh man gatordev is still here...AWESOME.
Yeah I'm doing a presentation on the Seahawk and it was confusing with all the variants out there. Thanks for clearing the confusion gatordev.

What's up with the Romeo though? It sounds real badass but most articles seem to imply that it's having growing pains in the ASW sensors department.

 

[Gatordev]

To be honest, I don't really follow the development of the Romeo that closely now. I hadn't heard about any ASW issues, but there was a big debate (which may still be going on) about what radar to put on the thing. Initially it was going to be an ISAR, which is a pretty kickass radar. Then it turned into an upgraded version of what we have now; standard "tron goes out, tron comes back," but in technicolor.

A huge issue was the cockpit and software design. It was supposed to share a common cockpit w/ the Sierra, but the Romeo version basically didn't work. Since the Sierra was pretty much ready to go, and the Romeo was holding up everything, they decided to split them and let the -60S hit the fleet. Since they were dicking around w/ the cockpit on the Romeo, they also started to debate about the software and interface. One camp was advocating a Commercial Aviation standard (basically a hardware interface that the big boys use...EFIS, Flight Director, etc). But that was deemed too costly and time consuming, so they went w/ a different interface. As a result, from last I heard, is that now you have 2 big LCD displays per pilot, and some backup instruments. The problem now is that you always have to have one display showing the engine intruments, and another showing your primary instruments, so now you're down to two displays. Well, you want your copilot to back you up, and you're copilot will want to back you up so you don't kill him. So now one of his screens is going to show the instruments. Now you're down to one screen for the tactical/sensor display........which is what we have now.

There's some other issues (big ones) that are popping up like weight, which is coupled w/ overloading the airframe w/ sensors (much like the Bravo is now). Not sure how they're working through these, but I would guess it will continue to be a problem.

 

[vegita1220]

Alright, thanks gatordev for writing that up.

 

[wink]

gatordev,
What about the HH-60H (ya, I know, they are reserve only primadonas)?Are the Hotels flown by the HS squadrons SH-60Hs or HH-60Hs like the HCS guys fly? I remember the HH-60H having some extra comm stuff, nav stuff and other goodies so they are compatable with the Naval Special Warfare mission. The HH-60H can shoot Hellfires. They aren't letting HS bubbas plink ships with Hellfires are they?

 

[bch]

There is a big shift being talked about. The ASW mission for helos may soon be fading away, to be replaced with all priamry asw going to other subs. HS, HC, HSL may start to merge instead of being 3 separate communities. There is also talk of making the 60 more tactical... ie mini guns, hellfires so on and so on. Sounds cool, but not too sure when it will come online in the fleet.

 

[Gatordev]

Wink:

The Hotels are part of the HS squadrons (see above). As far as I know, the Hotels in the HCS squadrons are the same models as the ones in the fleet squadrons. As for Hotels plinking ships, well, officially I don't think anybody has done it in aggression. I can't speak for the HS guys currency, but yeah, they can go shoot boats, just like we can.

bch:

"ASW mission...fading away..."

I can assure you that this is NOT true. In fact if you check the last few Early Birds, you'll see evidence of this, but big picture, COMPACFLT (Adm Doran) has said this needs to be the number one priority now, since the helo communities have moved to strike warfare over the last 10 years or so. As for HS/HC/HSL, HC will more than likely stay HC for a while, but yes, the plan is to integrate HS and HSL together once the Romeo comes online. However, HSL will still be around for a while until they phase out the Bravos (for better or for worse).

The Seahawk -60s are about as tactical as you can get right now. The Hotels have Mini-guns and Hellfires. The Bravos have armed helo (.50 cal and hellfire), and the foxtrots are becoming the ass-n-trash/SAR platform for the carrier plus VBSS or HVBSS. Of course, as I said, HSL hasn't fired in anger, and I think the same goes true for the Hotels w/ hellfire, since Desert Storm 1.

 

[bch]

cool man, thanks for the info... what do you know, the gouge out here is flawed!