Rhett,
We probably stomped some of the same streets. I did a deployment to Kadena in 1999. I'm sure you're familiar (hopefully not too familiar
) with "Whisper Alley". As for the sono-chutes and buoys, no they aren't recovered. They "scuttle" themselves after a predetermined period of time, so yes, the ocean floor has hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of them out there
. The time is programmed in prior to flight for the external load (48 of them) and the internal load can be preset to whatever the Tactical Coordinator requires just prior to launching. There are many kinds, passive, active, bathythermal...etc. Each has a specific function, but they all make up the cat and mouse game called anti-submarine warfare. I'd bet you a tank of diesel fuel that I would know some of those guys you met, or know someone who knows them
EdC,
Man, you don't know the half of it. My longest flight was 14.2 hours. We had 2 engines shut down for quite some time, saving fuel. Back in the days of the cold war and the then Soviet Union's submarine threat, we would fly out of an airbase in Iceland (Russia's front porch) and "flap" (fly continuously) for a month straight. That means that once one of their subs was located, we'd have a plane above it constantly for up to and sometimes over a month straight. (One plane wouldn't leave on-station, until a relief showed up, or there was a major malfunction. At that time, the "ready-alert" would launch and go continue the prosecution.) I recall Nov./Dec. of 1992 well. Heck, once we even ran out of sonobuoys, diverted to Bodo, Norway, did a Nascar style fuel stop, reloaded buoys and went back out on it...never missed a beat. Flying at night, down low sometimes 2-300 feet above the ice cold water with an engine, sometimes two "loitered" (shutdown, but ready for immediate restart), man I don't miss that! If we had ever had to ditch, survival probability (if you made it through the ditch) is near zero percent. The water was too cold, the ocean was too rough and it was too darn far for an H-53 out of Iceland to reach us. There wasn't any time to be complacent, or zig when you should have zagged. Everyone's eyes in the cockpit were glued to the radio altimeter. I could go on and on, but won't.
I've seen the prototype for the new P-8. Yeah, it's a 737 platform, but they are brand new planes...not retrofits. I'm not a big fan of it. Jet engine technology just isn't there yet to be able to match a prop's fuel efficiency at extremely low altitudes. There solution is to carry more fuel. Well, you burn a lot of fuel to carry it. There are pros and cons of both platforms...I am just biased I reckon.
BigD23,
Nice pic. That's a lot of ordnance! Thanks for YOUR service!!! That was quite a while ago. My first squadron as a redshirt was an A7E squadron. VA-66 "Waldo's" attached to the USS D.D. Eisenhower. As a matter of fact, I decomissioned that squadron. It wasn't re-designated...gone forever. That was in 1986. I too miss the M61-A1. To my knowledge, they haven't built another aircraft for the Navy since the A7E that would hold as many rounds of 20mm as it would - 1019 rounds. Of course as you well know, but for the others in TBN land, on "gun-high" it would empty the drum in 10 seconds! Yep, 100 rounds per second! Hydraulically driven, Electrically controlled, Electrically primed! Ooohraah.
I wish I had some pics, but don't
Too long ago, too many moves since then...
Talk to you guys later,
Podunk
