• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

SOAR

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
So, we get the DARPA money for that, kill the LTA program, and use the technology and remaining funding for the A/S-3C Viking Warrior. Am I ready for Program Management or Acquisition?
We'll also need to make shadow corporations to buy lots of titanium from the Russians. What would you say to a promotion?
 

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
We'll also need to make shadow corporations to buy lots of titanium from the Russians. What would you say to a promotion?
Only if you can smuggle rare earths out of China and Afghanistan. That’s what all the cool kids are doing.
 

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
I get want you mean, and you are on target, but in a time when it seams like every navy special operations type gets a book contract with his trident not “understanding” the mission is kind of funny. Maybe navy helicopter pilots can’t write? ?

It's hard to continue the conversation in this medium. If we were to do so, it's essentially showing our cards too soon. I'm not saying any of these events are going to have movies made about them, but they're part of a big picture that a lot higher ups have daily interest in. There's a reason why clearances are getting upgraded to TS and why SYSCONFIGs are getting updates to integrate with other specific CVW assets.

But as a counter to that, when HCS-4 had their mishap in Iraq c2007~2008, Airlant actual was surprised to learn there were Navy helicopters on the ground there doing in country SOF stuff... which they'd been doing for a few years by then (the 2515th det in Kuwait, flying missions across the border into Iraq notwithstanding).

Meh, that's not a surprise since it's probably fair to say that -4 wasn't there because there was any CNAL requirement for them to be there. Although I'd argue AIRLANT not knowing is a failure of CNAL's OPs more than any horn-touting.

We spend a lot on the bread and butter stuff (as we should) but we also seem to avoid the high end stuff. I mean institutionally we avoid it and instead we pay lip service to it by having regular line squadrons train a little bit on it, but with the implicit understanding that they're a few tiers down the list if the balloon ever goes up.

I take your point. I do also recall a conversation with a CDRE before I retired where he said (and I can't remember the exact number so it might have been a bit higher), "So look, I know we're going to lose at least a third of my aircraft if we go at it with China..." And then he continued the thought about something I don't remember (it probably involved T&R and/or simulators). My point is I remember how he started the thought and how there was an understanding that the fat kids on the shaft of the spear were going to get hurt just like those guys at the tip in that kind of fight.

After rereading Red Storm Rising recently after that other thread was talking about it, I appreciated how Clancy had the good guys take a lot of losses, even though we know they're going to win (in the story). I guess that balances the fact that every Naval System he talked about ALWAYS worked and never failed, which is of course, pure fiction.
 

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
After rereading Red Storm Rising recently after that other thread was talking about it, I appreciated how Clancy had the good guys take a lot of losses, even though we know they're going to win (in the story). I guess that balances the fact that every Naval System he talked about ALWAYS worked and never failed, which is of course, pure fiction.
Didn't he also give the SH-60F a dipping sonar it never had? Not a helo guy, so I don't have instant recall of all the late-80s early-90s early Seahawk variant alphabet soup.
 

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
Didn't he also give the SH-60F a dipping sonar it never had?
That's like asking about going the Prowler a jamming pod it never had!

Just messing with you-

The B is the one that was built without the dipper (and some other stuff) and built to work with the shipboard systems on smallboys. The F was the dipper and not as many buoys or toys. Put together it's like when the two different kinds of gladiators team up in the coliseum. The R has everything (and it's a porker), it's like all the systems from both versions stuffed into one.

The prevailing wisdom in our helicopter ASW, when it was 60Bs and Fs, was that a dipper was the preferred sensor if you were in hot contact with a sub, especially if the sub was setting up a shot for your high value unit. Figuring out B and F cooperative tactics kinda ebbed and flowed over the years; the surface picture put together by the B's sensors (linked to the ship and sent out on the link to everybody else) got put to good use a few times in the 1980s and 90s, with U.S. assets and allied, but not having a dipper was always a "wouldn't it be great to have/but it would be too heavy with all the other stuff" thing.

Conceptually, Clancy was on the money by putting a dipper on a smallboy.
 

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
Didn't he also give the SH-60F a dipping sonar it never had? Not a helo guy, so I don't have instant recall of all the late-80s early-90s early Seahawk variant alphabet soup.

I should probably go back to the other thread and report, but this thread is already a mess of OT, so...

He put the F on the FFG, but he also made the F something it wasn't. He added radar to the F, while also allowing the Dipper to expertly track subs passively. It's not like it can't happen, but it's not a thing now. There are some other quibbles with this subject, but I'll abstain from posting them for obvious reasons.

He also put only one crew on the FFG to fight WW3. Additionally, the crew he put on there only had 3 people, instead of the normal 4 for a Fox (adding the TSO, as I understand it). Finally, he had one of his characters (the FFG CO) ask a perfectly SWO question, which shows Clancy's lack of aviation prowess: "Is he Deck qualified?" Who cares? He's one of only two pilots on your one weapon system that actually helps! Let him sleep if he isn't flying. It actually made me wonder if there was any historical data on when the "no collateral duties" clause was added to 3710.

Conceptually, Clancy was on the money by putting a dipper on a smallboy.

I agree. The R had a lot of failures before it could even show up, but the capability now is pretty robust...assuming the systems don't FAULT/FAIL out.
 

HSMPBR

Not a misfit toy
pilot
Even when I was a nugget Navy Helos had a culture of "aww shucks" humility - which is does not serve the community well.
I disagree. I think humility serves communities, groups, and individuals extremely well. Jumping around yelling ‘look at us!’ and pinning five rows of medals on, well, pretty much anyone is a detractor.

I do agree that telling the story of what the service does is extremely important, but does that come from publishing individual citations?
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
After rereading Red Storm Rising recently after that other thread was talking about it, I appreciated how Clancy had the good guys take a lot of losses, even though we know they're going to win (in the story). I guess that balances the fact that every Naval System he talked about ALWAYS worked and never failed, which is of course, pure fiction.

Actually I remember one of the Phalanxs on the Nimitz not being able to decide which of the two inbound ASCM's to shoot down, then not firing at either, of being a somewhat realistic portrayal of how a weapon system could fail for a simple reason (not knowing anything about the Phalanx itself).
 
Top