Carriers

The US Navy and Boeing have successfully maneuvered an MQ-25 Stingray unmanned aerial refueler on a US Navy aircraft carrier for the first time.

The US Navy and Boeing have successfully maneuvered the Boeing-owned T1 test asset on a US Navy aircraft carrier for the first time – an early step forward in ensuring the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned aerial refueler will seamlessly integrate into carrier operations.

According to a Boeing news release, during an underway demonstration aboard the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), Navy flight deck directors – known as “yellow shirts” – used standard hand signals to direct T1 just like any other carrier-based aircraft. Instead of a pilot receiving the commands, however, it was a Boeing MQ-25 Deck Handling Operator (DHO) right beside the “yellow shirt” who commanded the aircraft using a new handheld deck control device.

“This is another significant step forward in demonstrating MQ-25’s integration into the Carrier Air Wing on the flight deck of our Fleet’s aircraft carriers,” said Capt. Chad Reed, Unmanned Carrier Aviation program manager. “The success of this event is a testament to the hard work of our engineers, testers, operators, and the close collaboration and teaming from Naval Air Force Atlantic and the crew aboard CVN 77.”

The demonstration was intended to ensure the design of the MQ-25 will successfully integrate into the carrier environment and to evaluate the functionality, capability, and handling qualities of the deck handling system both in day and night conditions. Maneuvers included taxiing on the deck, connecting to the catapult, clearing the landing area, and parking on the deck.

“Early testing allowed our team the opportunity to evaluate many new systems for the first time at sea with T1,” said Reed in a NAVAIR news release. “Our initial look at taxi operations on the flight deck successfully demonstrated the MQ-25’s ability to maneuver just like a manned aircraft in the shipboard environment.”

“The Navy has a rigorous, well-established process for moving aircraft on the carrier. Our goal was to ensure the MQ-25 fits into the process without changing it,” said Jim Young, MQ-25 chief engineer. “From the design of the aircraft to the design of the system moving it, our team has worked hard to make the MQ-25 carrier suitable in every way.”

DHO’s trained in Boeing’s deck handling simulation lab in St. Louis, where they practiced entering commands from simulated “yellow shirts” into the real handheld device. A simulated MQ-25, running the aircraft’s real operational flight code and interfaces, would move accordingly. The handheld controller is a simple, easy-to-use device designed specifically for a generation of sailors who natively understand such handheld technology and have experience with controllers used in the gaming industry today.

The deck handling demonstration followed a two-year flight test campaign for the Boeing-owned T1 test asset, during which the Boeing and Navy team refueled three different carrier-based aircraft – an F/A-18 Super Hornet, an E-2D Hawkeye, and an F-35C Lightning II.

“The Navy gave us two key performance parameters for the program – aerial refueling and integration onto the carrier deck,” said Dave Bujold, Boeing MQ-25 program director. “We’ve shown that the MQ-25 can meet both requirements, and we’ve done it years earlier than traditional acquisition programs.”

When operational, the director and deck operators will be able to taxi the MQ-25 on the carrier flight deck to the catapult launch position and to a parking location after landing. The MQ-25 will be controlled while airborne from the UAWC where the air vehicle operator executes a pre-planned mission.

The MQ-25 will be the world’s first operational, carrier-based unmanned aircraft and is integral to the future carrier air wing (CVW). It will provide an aerial refueling capability that extends the range, operational capability, and lethality of the CVW and carrier strike group (CSG).

Photo by U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Brandon Roberson

Western allies have expressed confidence to recover the wreckage of the British F-35B Lightning II before Russia beats them to recover and gain critical technological know-how in the sophisticated fifth-generation fighter aircraft

Western allies have expressed confidence to recover the wreckage of the British F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter jet that crashed in the Mediterranean while taking off from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth on Nov. 17, 2021, before Russia beats them to recover and gain critical technological know-how into the sophisticated fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

Following months in the Indo-Pacific region as part of her global deployment, HMS Queen Elizabeth is currently in the Mediterranean heading west back to the UK.

According to various UK news outlets, the pilot of the F-35B was forced to eject after a rain cover not lifted was sucked into the stealth plane during takeoff from the aircraft carrier.

The following video was leaked online and appears to feature the crash of the UK F-35B.

As reported by The EurAsian Times, the plan is now to recover the wreckage of the F-35B before Russia finds it. Russia in fact may try to recover the sunken debris of the aircraft to gain critical insights into its cutting-edge technology according to US military officer Brigadier-General Simon Doran.

He said: “We’ll get it first, I promise you.” Doran was echoed by NATO’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Tim Radford, who told journalists on board the vessel sailing in the Mediterranean: “[w]e’re not concerned at all about recovering it.”

However, further details regarding the recovery efforts were not disclosed.

The loss of the aircraft, according to Commodore Steve Moorhouse, the UK carrier strike group led by HMS Queen Elizabeth, was “a hugely unfortunate incident” and “a setback”.

He also said that “[t]he reliability of the aircraft or confidence in it and the project is undiminished.”

To understand if the western apprehension about Russia laying its hand on this American-made platform is genuine, The EurAsian Times spoke to several military analysts.

Military author, columnist, and defense analyst Joseph P Chacko shared his view: ‘Rival countries are interested in each other’s military developments. The relevant special services are always engaged in the extraction of samples of foreign military equipment, including raised and sunken foreign weapons.

‘Russia has the means to lift sunken objects from the seabed as the country had retrieved its carrier-based aircraft from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

‘The F-35 was equipped with top-secret radar and the most modern instruments and sensors that allowed it to fly at supersonic speeds and remain invisible. The British military is now recovering the debris.

‘The main thing, they believe, is that it does not fall into the hands of the enemy. First of all, the Russian Navy. The open-source information mentions that the F-35 crashed into the East Mediterranean Sea.’

By contrast Philippines-based airpower analyst, Miguel Miranda says that, ‘Nothing really [will be gleaned] as the Russians have the same tech. An F-35B was lost? The Russians certainly know what an F-35B can do.’

Moscow-based American political analyst Andrew Korybko shared his assessment, calling it “typical anti-Russian fearmongering meant to advance preplanned geopolitical hostility,”

“There’s no credible indication that Russian subs are racing towards the F-35’s Mediterranean underwater grave, but NATO’s claims that it supposedly is could revive the past years’ hysteria about Russian submarines and the alleged threat they pose (particularly to undersea cables per Western Mainstream Media speculation),” Korybko said.

“The Mediterranean is basically a NATO lake for the most part. It’s unrealistic to imagine that Russia could covertly dispatch a submarine to the F-35’s underwater grave, somehow obtain usable information about it (if not retrieve parts of it), and escape without anyone knowing, chasing them down, provoking an international confrontation, or whatever else.

“The story, therefore, sounds like typical anti-Russian fearmongering meant to advance preplanned geopolitical hostility against the Eurasian Great Power. It’s not worthy to even speculate about what would happen if Russia reached the site first since it’s not credible to even claim that it’s trying to, let alone could do so and get away with it in this NATO lake.”

Some observers pointed out that anything ranging from the lift fan to the engine itself would benefit the Russians as US engines are believed to possess more technological sophistication.

They are of the opinion that if the plane or the wreckage is salvaged, Russia would have a lot to gain as its indigenous aerospace industry has been lagging behind. But there are others who do not subscribe to this view.

As we have previously reported, earlier in the deployment F-35 jets from HMS Queen Elizabeth intercepted Russian jets in the eastern Mediterranean more than 30 times as part of the Carrier Strike Group. Now that the vessels have returned to the region after sailing to the Pacific and back it appears Russian interest has been renewed.

“It is not a secret the Russians have been very interested in the carrier group both on the way out from the United Kingdom – as she’s sailed and her group towards the Pacific – and now she is back in the Mediterranean,” Defence Secretary Ben Wallace explained to Sky News.

However, this would not be the first time that the Russians would try “to fish” a NATO fighter aircraft that fell off an aircraft carrier.

The Soviets in fact tried to go fishing for a VF-32 F-14 that fell off the USS John F. Kennedy on Sep. 14, 1976 – after the plane’s control systems went haywire and the pilot/RIO had to eject. At the time, the John F. Kennedy was off Scapa Flow (in Scotland’s northern islands) which wasn’t too far from the Soviet backyard, and this gave them plausible cover to attempt a recovery of the aircraft by posing as a fishing fleet conducting normal fishing operations.

Nevertheless, the Tomcat wreckage was finally recovered by the US Navy’s NR-1, a nuclear research submarine. The NR-1 crew observed that it had indeed been thoroughly harassed by Soviet efforts – with the fuselage roughed up quite a bit and entangled in fishing nets that had no business being there (the area of Scapa Flow doesn’t have any commercial fish stocks at the depth where Kennedy’s F-14 was sitting). At first, the NR-1 couldn’t account for an AIM-54 Phoenix, but the missile was eventually spotted after working a grid pattern going outwards from the F-14.

Photo by Gunnie Moberg, Crown Copyright

With British, American, and Italian F-35B jets taking off from HMS Queen Elizabeth, this marked the first time that three nations have flown jets from the same aircraft carrier

Italian F-35B Lightning II short takeoff-vertical landing (STOVL) stealth jets launched from the Italian carrier Cavour have landed, refueled, and relaunched from British carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.

According to UK Defence Journal, with British, American, and Italian F-35B jets taking off from HMS Queen Elizabeth, this marked the first time that three nations have flown jets from the same aircraft carrier.

Following months in the Indo-Pacific region as part of her global deployment, HMS Queen Elizabeth is currently in the Mediterranean heading west back to the UK. In doing so the ship has continued her program of working with allied nations and partners, says the Royal Navy.

According to the Royal Navy, Italy is the third nation to land F-35Bs on the carrier.

“On completion of the refueling, HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH launched an Italian Navy F-35, Italian Air Force F-35, USMC F-35, and finally an F-35B from the UK 617 squadron. The jets then operated in the skies above the two carriers developing their interoperability and mutual understanding of procedures. HMS Queen Elizabeth is the deployed flagship for Carrier Strike Group 21(CSG21). CSG21 will see the ship along with the Strike Group work with over 40 countries from around the world. The Strike Group will operate and exercise with other Countries’ Navies and Air Forces during the 7-month deployment.”

Aside from the US and UK, Italy is the only other NATO partner to operate the B-model of the F-35. With the flights by the Italian F-35Bs, HMS Queen Elizabeth has now hosted onboard jets from three different countries since leaving home in May. Italy is the first European NATO partner to land on the UK flight deck.

Royal Navy Commodore Steve Moorhouse, Commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group, said that “The fact that US, Italian, and UK F-35Bs are able to fly to and from one another’s decks offers tactical agility and strategic advantage to NATO.”

Noteworthy, as reported by UK Defence Journal, earlier in the deployment F-35 jets from HMS Queen Elizabeth intercepted Russian jets in the eastern Mediterranean more than 30 times as part of the Carrier Strike Group. Now that the vessels have returned to the region after sailing to the Pacific and back it appears Russian interest has been renewed.

Russia in fact had shown a renewed interest in HMS Queen Elizabeth and its F-35 jets as they headed home through the Mediterranean, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace explained to Sky News.

“It is not a secret the Russians have been very interested in the carrier group both on the way out from the United Kingdom – as she’s sailed and her group towards the Pacific – and now she is back in the Mediterranean.”

HMS Queen Elizabeth is the largest and most powerful vessel ever constructed for the Royal Navy. The ship is capable of carrying up to 40 aircraft.

The flight deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth is used to launch the new F-35B Joint Strike Fighter fast jet. Four fighter jets can be moved from the hangar to the flight deck in just one minute.

The ship’s two propellers weigh 33 tonnes each. The powerplant behind them generates enough power to run 1000 family cars.

Photo by Crown Copyright

HMS Queen Elizabeth has been kitted out with specially-designed LED lighting on her flight deck to aid nighttime landings

Taken on Oct. 3, 2018, the amazing pictures in this post show Royal Navy and Royal Air Force Test Pilots conducting the first-night flying trials off the United Kingdom’s largest warship, HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The trials included state-of-the-art night-vision technology, with the pilots and aircraft handlers successfully guiding the supersonic fighter jets onto the flight deck. HMS Queen Elizabeth has been kitted out with specially-designed LED lighting on her flight deck to aid nighttime landings.

Commander James Blackmore is the Commander Air in HMS Queen Elizabeth, who is referred to as simply ‘Wings’ by the ship’s company. “The concept of night flying isn’t difficult for us. What we are looking at is what the new lights onboard HMS Queen Elizabeth look like at night from the perspective of the F-35s,” he said in the Royal Navy press release.

Blackmore continues: “We’ve already done that with the rotary-wing aircraft earlier this year, but now it’s crucial that we understand how suitable they are for the F-35s to operate at night from the carrier. First indications are that they are in good order for both the aided and unaided perspectives.”

The stealth F-35 jets flew from HMS Queen Elizabeth for the first time last week. Royal Navy Commander Nathan Gray and RAF Squadron Leader Andy Edgell were the first pilots to make history by landing their aircraft on the flight deck of the giant carrier.

Now the flying trials have swiftly moved on to the next phase, including the night-time flying which up until now has only been tested in simulators or on the ground.

Using the night-vision technology doesn’t always make landings easy as even the smallest light becomes ultra-bright when it is viewed through specialist equipment.

The lights on a carrier’s deck can look fine to the naked eye but suddenly become very bright when night-vision is switched on. However, HMS Queen Elizabeth has been installed with specially-designed LED lightning on her flight deck, which solves the issue.

Even still, it is important for pilots to test their ability to land with and without night-vision assistance.

Andrew Maack, the Chief Test Engineer for the Integrated Test Force – the organization responsible for analyzing the flight trials – added: “In the daytime, there are cues that tell the pilot’s brain what the relative motion is between the airplane and the ship.

“At night, especially very dark night, all those cues go away and you become dependent on exactly what the lights are and what the sight of those lights looks like. It’s something you can’t translate in your mind ahead of time – you don’t know it until you see it.”

HMS Queen Elizabeth left her home port of Portsmouth in August, crossing the Atlantic to conduct the flying trials as well as training with the US Navy.

Photo by Crown Copyright, Royal Navy

Older aircraft did not have a launch bar integrated into the nose gear; instead, a wire rope called a catapult bridle was attached to the aircraft and the catapult shuttle…

An aircraft catapult is a device used to allow aircraft to take off from a very limited amount of space, such as the deck of a vessel, but also installed land-based runways in rare cases. It is now most commonly used on aircraft carriers, as a form of assisted take-off.

Older aircraft did not have a launch bar integrated into the nose gear; instead, a wire rope called a catapult bridle was attached to the aircraft and the catapult shuttle. The ramps (Van Velm Bridle Arresters or horns) at the catapult ends on older carriers were used to catch these ropes so they could be reused; bridles have not been used on US aircraft (French Navy Super Etendard Modernisé attack aircraft used bridles until their retirement in 2016 and Brazilian Navy A-4 Skyhawk fighter bombers used bridles until the aircraft carrier São Paulo went out of service in 2017) since the end of the Cold War and all carriers commissioned since then have not had the ramps.

The last carrier commissioned with a bridle catcher was USS Carl Vinson; starting with USS Theodore Roosevelt the ramps were deleted. During Refueling and Comprehensive Overhaul refits in the late 1990s–early 2000s, the bridle catchers were removed from the first three Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. USS Enterprise had been the last US Navy operational carrier where the ramps were not removed.

F-4, A-3, A-4, F-8 and RA-5C aircraft were bridle equipped. Back in the 70’s A-6, A-7, E-2, and C-2 were the first aircraft equipped with nose tow. In the early days, the bridles were shot off the bow, so the ramps were for bridle overrun. The bridles were hooked to a strap that ran in a track alongside the cat slot and were brought to a stop by a cammed disc brake.

‘The extensions were called “Bridle Catchers,” says James Shannon, Senior Chief Petty Officer BMCS (SW/AW)(E-8) at US Navy (1995-present), on Quora.

‘Catapulting aircraft from the carrier deck has evolved. In the past, most aircraft were launched by attaching the aircraft nose to the catapult via a wire bridle. The bridle catcher would ‘catch’ the wire so that it could be reused.

‘This method evolved, however. Nose wheels would be fitted especially so that they could be attached directly to the catapult shuttle.

‘As soon as all the aircraft in the airwing gradually evolved to using the launch bar/nose wheel method, there was no longer a need for the bridle catcher.’

Shannon concludes;

‘USN Carriers eventually removed the bridle catchers or were built without them.’

The video below features the bridle Launch of an F-4 Phantom.

This other clip instead features the Launch Bar/Nosewheel Launch of a Super Hornet.

Photo by U.S. Navy

The Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet – Rafale M’s competitor – already demonstrated the ski-jump capability in December 2020 at NAS Patuxent River in the US.

Dassault aims to bring its Rafale M (Marine) carrier-borne fighter to the shore-based test facility (SBTF) at INS Hansa in January 2022, India to prove that the jet can take off from a ski-jump, ThePrint reports.

Dassault is eyeing a mega contract with the Indian Navy for new fighters. The service in fact plans to procure new fighters to replace the Russian MiG-29Ks.

According to a source in the defense establishment “The Rafale M will not take off from the aircraft carrier (during the showcase) but from the shore-based test facility (SBTF) at INS Hansa, Goa. Dassault Aviation is confident and wanted to showcase their capability in India itself.”

Carrier-based fighters primarily come in three categories — STOVL (short take-off and vertical landing), STOBAR (Short Take-off but Arrested Recovery), and CATOBAR (catapult take-off but arrested recovery).

US Navy aircraft carriers and French Navy’s Charles de Gaulle use CATOBAR Indian carriers — INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant — employ STOBAR. That’s why foreign fighters have to showcase their capability as a basic requirement.

STOBAR is a system used for the launch and recovery of aircraft from the deck of an aircraft carrier, combining short take-off without catapults and arrested recovery using cables on the deck for the aircraft to catch.

As we have already reported, the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet – Rafale M’s competitor – already demonstrated the ski-jump capability in December 2020 at Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River in the US.

Dassault Aviation had been in talks with the Indian Navy for the Rafale M even before they signed the contract for the 36 air force fighters in 2016.

In 2017, the Navy issued a Request for Information (RFI) for 57 new fighters.

In 2020, the Indian Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh said the service may pursue joint acquisition of fighters with the Indian Air Force (IAF).

“We have the MiG-29K operating from the Vikramaditya and will operate from the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC)-I [the INS Vikrant]. To replace them, we have taken up a case for the Multi-Role Carrier-Borne Fighters (MRCBF) which we are trying to do along with the IAF,” he explained.

In 2016 Comptroller and Auditor General of India (the country authority which audits all receipts and expenditures of the Government of India and the state governments), issued a report criticizing the MiG-29K fighters for problems with engines and electronic control systems which resulted in “serviceability” of the airplanes “varying between 16 percent and 39 percent” meaning that out of fleet 10 fighters, only 3 were normally available for operations at given time.

Sources in the defense establishment said that the lift of the INS Vikrant may be too small to accommodate either the Rafale M or the F/A-18. While the Boeing fighter comes with foldable wings, Rafale does not.

“The mere fact that both companies are eager to offer their aircraft means that they have taken into account various measurements,” a source said, refusing to get into the specifics.

While Dassault is happy to merge naval requirements with that of the IAF, Boeing is skeptical about it, they added.

Photo by U.S. Navy

The Royal Canadian Navy helped solve a shortage of tea on board HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The Royal Canadian Navy helped solve a shortage of tea on board HMS Queen Elizabeth, supplying one of the most critical, morale-boosting items available on the Royal Navy aircraft carrier, Alert 5 reported.

While on deployment in the Pacific, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, based at Portsmouth, ran out of its stash of the steaming amber liquid for the flag officers’ mess.

While the boss of the British task force, Commodore Steve Moorhouse, was aboard HMCS Winnipeg, with a minor high-seas catering crisis looming, the quick-thinking commander of the Canadian frigate stepped in to resupply the pride of the Royal Navy.

‘I went across thinking I would be offered traditional Canadian hospitality, whatever that may be,’ Commodore Moorhouse told CBC News following his 90-minute visit to the Canadian vessel. ‘And they very, very kindly laid on English tea, afternoon tea.’

The gesture of the Canadians genuinely touched Cdre Moorhouse, former captain of HMS Queen Elizabeth.

‘I had a cup of Earl Grey and English scones with cream and jam,” he added. ‘I said, “Hey, that’s fantastic, we’ve just run out of Earl Grey tea in the flag area on Queen Elizabeth”. I returned to the ship weighed down with probably a thousand tea bags.’

The commander of the Winnipeg said it was the least they could do to help an allied unit suffering through the privation of a long sea voyage.

‘We gave him three boxes and he sent me an email afterward and said I was a hero going back to a British ship with tea from Canada,’ Canadian Commander Doug Layton said.

Surprised by the gift, Cdre Moorhouse added: ‘Whenever you visit a ship, sailors will say, “Hey sir, what did you get? What did they give you? Was it maple syrup or something like that?,’ he said. ‘And I said, “No, I’ve got Earl Grey tea bags”.’

HMS Queen Elizabeth has almost completed her tour of the Far East.

The 65,000-tonne warship, is now in Singapore, having previously spent time in Japan and Guam.

HMS Queen Elizabeth is the largest and most powerful vessel ever constructed for the Royal Navy. The ship is capable of carrying up to 40 aircraft.

The flight deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth is used to launch the new F-35B Joint Strike Fighter fast jet. Four fighter jets can be moved from the hangar to the flight deck in just one minute.

The ship’s two propellers weigh 33 tonnes each. The powerplant behind them generates enough power to run 1000 family cars.

Photo by Royal Navy / Crown Copyright

The statement “China has the largest navy in the world” is largely misleading and used mainly for sensationalist headlines.

Since the release of the Department of Defense’s “2020 China Military Power Report” last year, much has been made of China’s securing the title of the “world’s largest navy.” As reported by The Diplomat, indeed, the United States Office of Naval Intelligence has confirmed that the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has surpassed the US Navy in total battle force ships, approximately 537 ships (of which 360 deployable) to 480 total ships (of which 297 deployable), with future projections expecting the gap to grow. By 2025, the PLAN is predicted to field as many as 400 vessels whereas the US plans only to field 355. Quantitative discussions of this sort have fostered an increasing level of hysteria in the US media and even parts of its foreign policy and defense establishments.

But ‘the statement of “China has the largest navy in the world” is largely misleading and used mainly for sensationalist headlines,’ says Reilly Brangan, studies Bachelor of Technology in Aeronautical Engineering student at the University of New South Wales, on Quora.

‘In reality, China does not have the world’s largest navy, in any meaningful metric.

‘But “China has more ships than the United States!” you may claim. It is true, the PLAN has over 530 active vessels in service, whereas the United States Navy only has some 480 vessels in service. What this fails to consider is that almost half of the PLAN is made up of vessels like these,

Type 022 Missile Boat

‘And these,

Type 037 Corvette

‘Together, the PLAN’s Missile boats, coastal patrol craft and small mine clearing vessels account for 256 ships, or almost half of the entire PLAN vessel count. This is why simply using vessel numbers is not a genuine or realistic metric for “largest” or most capable navy. By the same metric I could throw 500 sail boats in the water and also have a larger Navy than the United States Navy, does that mean I can compete against it in any meaningful way? No.

‘If we use this same metric, the largest navy in the world is actually the Korean People’s Army Naval Force (KPANF), which absolutely dwarfs both the USN, and the PLAN with over 1,000 vessels in service. But the reality is quite obviously that the North Korean naval forces are dwarfed by both of those nations.

‘The more appropriate metric to analyse in this scenario is total fleet displacement, i.e the total combined tonnage of all of the vessels in each of these respective services.’

Brangan concludes;

‘The US Navy, which is heavily biased towards large surface and sub-surface blue water combatants, has a total fleet displacement of over 4.6 million tonnes whereas the PLAN has a total fleet displacement of less than 2 million tonnes, or well below half that of the United States Navy. In blue water fleet capability, the PLAN is still dwarfed by the USN as of 2021.’

It should also be mentioned that China relegates duties that would be assigned to the US Coast Guard to their navy as well, so it would be apt to add Coast Guard vessels to the US total, which adds at minimum 243 more ships.

Photo by U.S. Navy and AHMED XIV Own Work via Wikipedia

The Handler and his minions hate having the E-2 moving around the flight deck.

The E-2 Hawkeye is the Navy’s all-weather, carrier-based tactical battle management airborne early warning, command, and control aircraft. The E-2 is a twin-engine, five crewmembers, high-wing turboprop aircraft with a 24-foot diameter radar rotodome attached to the upper fuselage.

The Hawkeye provides all-weather airborne early warning, airborne battle management, and command and control functions for the Carrier Strike Group and Joint Force Commander. Additional missions include surface surveillance coordination, air interdiction, offensive and defensive counter-air control, close air support coordination, time-critical strike coordination, search and rescue airborne coordination, and communications relay. An integral component of the Carrier Strike Group air wing, the E-2 uses computerized radar, Identification Friend or Foe, and electronic surveillance sensors to provide early warning, and threat analysis against potentially hostile air and surface targets.

Usually, Hawkeye is also the first aircraft to be launched from aircraft carriers at the beginning of day operations. Why?

‘Because the Handler and his minions hate having the E-2 moving around the flight deck. It’s big and bulky, with those two windmills of death just waiting for the unwary,’ says Andy Burns, US Navy Flight Officer with under 1500 hours in the Hawkeye, on Quora.

‘But seriously – getting an E-2 “up” and in position for launch makes moving everything else around the flight deck more difficult. Besides its sheer size, since it doesn’t have an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU), the E-2 needs to be supplied with external power until its onboard electrical generators (driven by the engines) are online, and there are only a few places on the flight deck with the necessary “deck edge power” connections.

‘The bow cats have those deck edge power connections nearby, so it’s just easiest to tow the E-2 there, getting it out of the way of all the other jets that need to be moved and “spotted,” before the next launch. When it’s time to start up for the next event, you get the Hummer started, spread, and launched first, and clear the deck for everyone else.

‘Of course, there’s always the risk that the plane will go “down” on the cat, and have to be pulled aft and one of the spare E-2s moved up for launch, in which case you can hear the Handler’s major arteries clanging shut across the ship.

‘So the E-2 is the first aircraft to be launched from carriers not “because the Hawkeye is the long-range eyes of the carrier group,” or to that effect. That’s not wrong, but it’s sort of obsolescent. That’s the Cold War answer, put it that way, when the E-2 had its original mission of defending the Battle Group against long-range Soviet aviation by detecting the bombers and guiding interceptors against them. Fleet air defense is still one of the E-2’s missions but it’s not a primary one anymore. In fact, the official designation for VAW squadrons was changed a couple of years ago, from “Carrier Airborne Early Warning” to “Airborne Command and Control.”’

Burns concludes;

‘The answer to the question of why the E-2 is always the first fixed-wing airborne on any given launch cycle, no matter what else is going on, is because it’s a pain in the ass to have it taxiing around the flight deck and makes it more difficult to move the other airplanes around. That’s really it.’

Photo by U.S. Navy

The aircraft carrier’s fantail opening serves several functions.

Fantails “are small insectivorous birds of Australasia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent belonging to the genus Rhipidura.” According to Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places, they fly in a very distinctive way with the feathers spread out to help them turn quickly so they can catch insects.

The very back end of an aircraft carrier kind of protruded in a similar way I supposed. Anyway, someone thought so because they called it the fantail.

‘The fantail opening serves several functions,’ says Paul Montgomery, Boiler/Eng Controls USS JFK CV67.

Montgomery sums up just about all of the reasons for this large aft opening on Quora.

• It provides a sheltered area to access the ship when anchored away from a pier.
• It provides a means to tow stuff behind the ship while underway. Some of those things are secret, but a common item to tow was a barge used as target practice by the pilots. Brrrt.
• The jet engine shop is just behind the doors at the center-right. When open, they can extend a rail system where engines can be tested under full power after overhaul.
• It provides a diving platform for divers to do repairs to the four screws (propellers).
• You can fish off of it while anchored.
• Sailors sometimes break out the barbecue grill there and cook.
• It allows for excellent pictures of the wake of the ship extending out over calm waters for as far as you can see.

As the following video taken from aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) shows, it is also a great spot for watching incoming jets, although aircraft carrier crew members go out there during one of the rare quiet moments with nothing in the air. Moreover, the fantail is normally secured during flight operations for safety reasons.

Top image: PH Rome J. Toledo / U.S. Navy