Don't remind me........my body hurts enough as it is.....
Going hunting in a F/A-18 Super Hornet
- Thread starter GunnyGene
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GunnyGene
Hawkeye
Prepped for a "Target Rich" environment.Max loadout for air to air. ☠ This is a T&E, using dummy missiles. Altogether about 16,000lbs.
F/A-18 Super Hornet Appears With Unprecedented Heavy Air-To-Air Missile Load
This is the first time we have seen four AIM-174B very long-range air-to-air missiles on a Super Hornet, along with pods and other missiles.www.twz.com
GunnyGene
Hawkeye
Big environment with a 200mile+ radius.
outlaw_dogboy
Single-Sixer
All I will say is that the word coming from a wing CO on his first deployment with Super Hornets instead of Tomcats (or, actually, Bombcats), he preferred the Supers. Lower MMH per flt hour, could carry more bombs (no, not more than the A6) so could get the job done while putting less aircrew in harms way. Admittedly, at the time, the comparison was between practically brand new jets vs. jets that were pushing 20 years old (or more). So, the MMH is probably an unfair comparison.
Also, wasn't part of the problem with the F-4 not having a gun was the ROE at the time required positive visual confirmation of enemy? And by the time you could do that, you were committed to dogfighting, and needed a gun for the minimum range. SUPPOSEDLY, our ability to positively identify the enemy is better now; we'll see how that works out when we actually go up against a peer air power.
Also, wasn't part of the problem with the F-4 not having a gun was the ROE at the time required positive visual confirmation of enemy? And by the time you could do that, you were committed to dogfighting, and needed a gun for the minimum range. SUPPOSEDLY, our ability to positively identify the enemy is better now; we'll see how that works out when we actually go up against a peer air power.
I'm curious who the CO was.....as for Bombcats I'm glad I didn't have to deal with that debacle during my FITRON days...AIM54, AIM9, AIM7, 20MM were most of my load outs.....oh and chaff/flares but that doesn't really count lol.
BTW.....we are coming up on the 18 year anniversary of the F14 being retired......time "flies".......
outlaw_dogboy
Single-Sixer
I wish I could remember who he was. It has been a LONG time. All I can remember is he had red hair.
F-14 retirement. A sad day, IMO.
I came on board when the Navy (and Marines) were still running: F-4, A-4, A-6, A-7, AV-8B, F-14, F/A-18 (A/B)... and gradually watched them all fade away. I understand the ease of the logistical chain by going to a single tactical aircraft deck... but it sure is boring.
Same here......in A School we trained on A4 Skyhawks and F4 Phantoms......not fun loading MK80 series under the belly of the F4 when you are 6'5....first command was AIMD Armament we were still doing maint on F4 bomb racks....and there was a TAR A4 Squadron....this was NAS Miramar 1984.
Was happy to go Tomcats when the time for Sea Duty came up.
What rate were you?
outlaw_dogboy
Single-Sixer
Not rated. Civilian. Currently in my 35th year in the Dept of the Navy.
Actually, at one point I guess I was rated a Seaman Recruit. But that was more than 35 years ago, while in NROTC at college.
Oh. Well, then IYAOYAS wouldn't be appropriate as a response.....
outlaw_dogboy
Single-Sixer
Oh, I don't know. I AM quite familiar with the phrase.Oh. Well, then IYAOYAS wouldn't be appropriate as a response.....
freakindawgen
Single-Sixer
Good looking plane!
I preferred the VX9 Tomcat with playboy bunny.....its a boomer thing I guess....
I didn't get into the Bombcat Era. In fact I never got to work with the F-14B or D even though I held the NEC for them. Nope mine was the OG of Tomcats F-14A! Five squadrons of them. Who ever genius was at Pratt and Whitney who developed the TF30-P412/414 engines needs to have his head in a glass jar at Harvard.
Bigbore5
Single-Sixer
I've been on the ground when a Spooky came in to provide close support. It's a whole other world than a fighter with a few bombs. It's the ultimate "get off me" aircraft. I also remember doing assessments on the Highway of Death in Kuwait, sometimes for too many nights in a row. You would have had to seen it to believe it.Or cargo planes (C-47 & C-130) into CAS gunships.
Yep. I spent 4 months in Kuwait beginning April 1991 - right after the Iraqis were kicked out. I drove through the Highway of Death, or "Valley of Death" as locals called it. I saw a GI-written sign, in chalk, on one of the burned-out military vehicles that borrowed from a Kipling quote, "Into the Valley of Death rode the 6,000," written underneath a Kilroy was here caricature.
The Valley of Death continued for a mile or more.
Driving back towards the city, I saw auto "junk yards" holding thousands of burned out Mercedes Benz and Chevrolet automobiles - hauled there by Brown & Root, no doubt, during post-occupation cleanup. Why MB and Chevy? The Kuwaiti citizens drove the MBs, and their foreign workers drove Chevies. Seems Chevy had the Kuwaiti "franchise" pre-invasion.
In a city of over 1 million residents, Kuwaiti citizens numbered fewer than 250,000. The rest? Palestinians, Jordanians, Iraqis, Indians, Filipinos and the like.
I lived in the Kuwait International Hotel, directly across from the US Embassy. My hotel room was on the 6th floor. It's windows had holes in them (for the Iraqi army to use as rifle ports). The water taps had brown and brown luke-warm water, and the air conditioner did not work. Not good. Because the soot from the many oilwell fires went through those open windows. My just-washed white bedsheets turned sooty grey within a day. So did all of my clothes. Outside, the soot blocked the sunlight (but not the heat) so that noontime on a 100-degree day looked like dusk.
The hotel food was good - all served buffet-style. But many Kuwaitis shied away from me at mealtime because I ate left-handed.
outlaw_dogboy
Single-Sixer
I see what you did there. Hopefully, you never showed one of them the bottom of your shoe, either.
Having a Naval Aviator Son allowed me to be on a Carrier at sea twice. The first time was a one-day Dependance Cruise out of Norfolk on the USS Harry S. Truman. The second was Tiger Cruise for three days on the USS Nimitz out of Bremerton WA to San Francisco while Son was the Airboss.
On the first trip a Tomcat flew by the ship above the speed of sound. The boom was very impressive onboard while standing on the flight deck when the F-14 is about a 1/4 mile away. The 14s also did gun runs and dropped 500lbs. bombs GREAT show
On the second trip a cleaned-up Hornet tried 3 times to break the sound barrier for us and could not do it.
I saw the last airshow flight of the F-14 at Ocean NAS when Daughter was stationed there and in charge of the Airshow. The whole routine was done at twilight and in burner. Very loud and impressive.
IMHO and others the last model of the Tomcat should not have been retired so soon
On the first trip a Tomcat flew by the ship above the speed of sound. The boom was very impressive onboard while standing on the flight deck when the F-14 is about a 1/4 mile away. The 14s also did gun runs and dropped 500lbs. bombs GREAT show
On the second trip a cleaned-up Hornet tried 3 times to break the sound barrier for us and could not do it.
I saw the last airshow flight of the F-14 at Ocean NAS when Daughter was stationed there and in charge of the Airshow. The whole routine was done at twilight and in burner. Very loud and impressive.
IMHO and others the last model of the Tomcat should not have been retired so soon
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Did your Daughter bring you by The Ready Room on London Bridge Rd outside NAS Oceana? I held down a bar stool there many times back in the day...
Did your Daughter bring you by The Ready Room on London Bridge Rd outside NAS Oceana? I held down a bar stool there many times back in the day...
