Steeljaw Scribe

This Thursday, 21 October 2010, marks the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the first purpose built AEW aircraft, the E-2 Hawkeye (actually, it was the YW2F-1).  Designed around the radar, rather than adapting an existing airframe, the Hawkeye symbolized function over form – from the 24ft “rotodome” prominently perched over the fuselage, to the quadruple tail and twin turboprops.  It wasn’t pretty – but then, it wasn’t meant to win beauty contests. It was meant for far more deadly competition. This odd appearing aircraft has been an indelible portion of my life as well.  Our acquaintance formally spans over three decades, thousands of hours aloft and over five hundred carrier landings.  Although I haven’t strapped into a Hawkeye since my last flight in December 1995 (not coincidently, the last VAW-122 flight as well), I still feel like I could walk out and with little hesitation, perform a preflight and system startup, it has ingrained itself as such in me. The plan wasn’t always to fly Hawkeyes.  Indeed, prior to Pensacola in 1978, my only other encounters were the occasional photo in a book or periodical devoted to something larger about flying and being confronted one morning by a picture of an E-2B, gear up, in a cornfield where it had crashed short of the runway at Offutt AFB out of fuel.  I still recall looking at that odd plane, with the big dome over the fuselage and wondering out loud who on earth would want to fly such a thing?  Of ... Continue Reading

1050L 24 Oct 1944. USS St. Lo (CVE-63) is under heavy air attack. After successfully fending off the superior surface force of VADM Takeo Kurita’s Center Force, “Taffy 3” is now defending against a surprise air attack that has lasted some 40 minutes already. One of the features of this attack is the use of suicide attacks. The "Divine Wind" -- Kamikazes. In the midst of battle, St Lo is struck by a plane flown by Lt Yukio Seki. Penetrating the escort carrier’s unarmored flight deck, the plane and its bomb explode in the port hangar bay, igniting a massive fire with secondary explosions. When the bomb and torpedo magazine detonates, St. Lo is engulfed in flames and sinks 30 minutes later. Barely 6 days later, the carriers Franklin and Belleau Wood were struck by suicide aircraft. Both were forced to retire for repair before rejoining the fleet. This emerging threat, kamikaze attacks, were a hint of what was to come as the Fleet closed on the Japanese homeland. The urgency for getting Cadillac’s capabilities operationally deployed was being underscored by increasing losses in the Pacific... Development & Production Recognizing the importance of the Cadillac system, an early decision was made by the Navy to establish production coincident with its development. To be sure, this imparted significant risk to the program, but in light of its benefits this was deemed acceptable. To facilitate this plan, the project was divided into ... Continue Reading

13 October 1775: Continental Congress "Resolved, That a swift sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage guns, and a proportionable number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted, with all possible despatch, for a cruise of three months, and that the commander be instructed to cruize eastward, for intercepting such transports as may be laden with warlike stores and other supplies for our enemies, and for such other purposes as the Congress shall direct. That a Committee of three be appointed to prepare an estimate of the expence, and lay the same before the Congress, and to contract with proper persons to fit out the vessel. Resolved, that another vessel be fitted out for the same purposes, and that the said committee report their opinion of a proper vessel, and also an estimate of the expence." . . . But we are left to ask - going forward, is it our twilight or the dawn of a new day? ... Continue Reading

12 October 2000 . . . . . . When another chapter in the Long War against terror was written in the blood of the free: The toll: * Seventeen American Sailors dead: Hull Maintenance Technician Second Class Kenneth Eugene Clodfelter, 21, of Mechanicsville, Va. Electronics Technician Chief Petty Officer Richard Costelow, 35, of Morrisville, Pa. Mess Management Specialist Seaman Lakeina Monique Francis, 19, of Woodleaf, N.C. Information Systems Technician Timothy Lee Gauna, 21, of Rice, Texas Signalman Seaman Cherone Louis Gunn, 22, of Rex, Ga Seaman James Rodrick McDaniels, 19, of Norfolk, Va. Engineman Second Class Marc Ian Nieto, 24, of Fond du Lac, Wis. Electronics Warfare Technician Second Class Ronald Scott Owens, 24, of Vero Beach, Fla Seaman Lakiba Nicole Palmer, 22, of San Diego, Calif. Engineman Fireman Joshua Langdon Parlett, 19, of Churchville, Md Fireman Patrick Howard Roy, 19, of Cornwall on Hudson, N.Y. Electronics Warfare Technician First Class Kevin Shawn Rux, 30, of Portland, N.D. Mess Management Specialist Third Class Ronchester Manangan Santiago, 22, Kingsville, Texas Operations Specialist Second Class Timothy Lamont Saunders, 32, of Ringgold, Va. Fireman Gary Graham Swenchonis Jr., 26, Rockport, Texas Ltjg Andrew Triplett, 31, of Macon, Miss Seaman Craig Bryan Wibberley, 19, of Williamsport, Md * Thirty-nine wounded... * A ship grievously injured... Yet with skill and verve, the crew saved their ship She would be resurrected: Repaired: and returned to the Fleet to re-enter the fight: Godspeed the USS Cole and her crew ... and may we never forget... See also:  "A Guest post from CDR Kirk S. Lippold, USN-Ret." ... Continue Reading

Project CADILLAC (Part II)         Project Cadillac was more than just a program to develop radar – it would develop an entire AEW system -- Radar, IFF, relay equipment, shipboard receivers, and airborne platform. Such an undertaking would be ambitious enough in peacetime, at the height of a critical stage in the war it bordered on a divine miracle. - SJS February 1944.  In Europe the invasion of Italy is well underway and the Battle of Monte Casino is engaged. Eisenhower establishes SHAFE headquarters in Britain. The RAF drops 2300 tons on Berlin, the 8th AF begins the “Big Week” bombing campaign and Soviet troops continue the offensive begin at Novgorod and Leningrad. In the Pacific US forces have landed and captured the Marshall Islands and have moved on to Eniwetok Atoll. In the south, MacArthur’s forces have begun Operation Brewer in the Admiralty Islands. The tide, ever so imperceptibly, is turning in favor of the Allies.  In Japan, Commander Asaiki Tamai asked a group of 23 talented student pilots, whom he had personally trained, to volunteer for a special attack force. All of the pilots raised both of their hands, thereby volunteering to join the operation. In the US, the fruits of scientific research and technological prowess were starting to manifest – high altitude bombers, Essex-class carriers, jet engines, the beginnings of nuclear weapons.   At the MIT-RL, proposals were forwarded for an ambitious program to develop an AEW system that would be deployed with the fast carrier forces in the Pacific.  It was ... Continue Reading

Sometime in April 1958, Lockheed first undertook the study of a replacement for the U-2.  Unlike the U-2, this would be an aircraft able to cruise at Mach 3, with a range of over 4,000 nm at altitudes exceeding 90,000 ft.  It would also have an RCS (radar cross section) smaller than the U-2 and every other recce aircraft.  By March 1959, and after an intense competition between Lockheed and Convair (and to lesser extents, Boeing and General Dynamics), Lockheed was building a full scale mockup for radar testing.  First flight was 26 April 1962.  Four years from initial studies to first flight of a radical aircraft, the likes of which had never been seen before.  No supercomputers, no virtual design rooms -- no fancy marketing computer animations.  Just slide rules, a small team and sound engineering principles overlayed by a relentless pursuit of perfection...  The rest we pretty well know - how the SR-71 emerged from the A-12 Oxcart program and became an extraordinary reconnaissance platform.  It also begs a question - in a day and age when the gestation for a new fighter aircraft lasts on the order of 7 to 10 or more years, could such a program be replicated today?  In the same timeframe?  From those who were there, it appears the answer is "probably not:" 'Phib, Byron -- bet the same could be said about the state of our ship design and building industry... (h/t Stephen Trimble at The DEW Line) Want to read more?  Check out the ... Continue Reading

Project CADILLAC (Part I) Ed note: Everything has a beginning and that beginning is usually quite humble compared to present conditions.  Consider, a small spring at the headwaters of the Madison River in Montana is the source of the mighty Missouri River which itself empties into ol' man river -- the Mississippi, all of which drain the better part of the country described in the Louisiana Purchase.  Likewise, current day Airborne Early Warning and battle management, as we know it, sprang from humble beginnings and the collaborative efforts of the private and public sectors and borne in the urgency of war.  Herewith then, the story of that effort is told as we begin the observance of the Hawkeye's 50th Anniversary. - SJS There is an arrogance permeating our culture such that it is widely believed that the (fill in the blank with the latest technological wonder) is (1) fairly recent in invention and (2) anything that preceded was hopelessly crude and unsophisticated, if it even existed or could have been possibly conceived in an earlier age. Serious students of history, particularly technological history,  will assert though, the degree of inventiveness and technical complexity evidenced by our predecessors is indeed extraordinary, especially when put in context of the extent of knowledge in a particular field at the time. The story of airborne radar, and airborne early warning radar in particular, is one of the signatory lessons in this vein. Radar was not unknown in the early days of WWII – indeed ... Continue Reading

By any measure, fifty years is remarkable.  Birthdays, reunions, wedding anniversaries - in all of these the marker set at fifty years is justifiably prominent and noteworthy. For aircraft -- especially those in carrier aviation, it is signatory. This month the E-2 Hawkeye will celebrate 50 years, starting with the first flight of the prototype, the YW2F-1 (BuNo 148147) on 21 October 1960.  That was the start of a run of aircraft that looks to continue well into the first quarter of the 21st Century in the form of the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye.  From that first flight through today, the Hawkeye has shared the flight deck with the A-4, A-6, A-7,C-1,  EA-3B, EKA-3B, EA-6A, F-4, F-8, F-14, KA-6, S-2, S-3, and WF/E-1B - all of which are now sitting in boneyards.  It currently shares real estate with a variety of Hornets, the soon to be replaced EA-6B Prowler and the venerable COD and first cousin, C-2A(R) Greyhound.  Still to come are the F-35 and UCAV-N.  Such longevity is testimony as much to the inherent flexibility of the original design as it is to budgetary realities and bureaucratic bias.  Nevertheless, such milestones should not pass with little or no recognition - and of course, around these parts that is not an option.  So, between now and the 21st, we will be posting a variety of articles, beginning with updates of an earlier series on Project CADILLAC, that started it all.  Along the way I hope that a new appreciation for the aircraft and ... Continue Reading

Last year, a small group of us spent the better part of the summer and fall writing on the Solomons Campaign.  That drawnout slugfest in the southwest Pacific receives little notice beyond Guadalcanal and some discussions regarding Santa Cruz.  The purpose of that exercise (here and over at USNI's blog) was to surface the larger - and smaller aspects of that entire campaign and put it in context of the overall Pacific theater campaign.  Well, in the (e)mail this past week came a small piece of that campaign as relates to the Bougainville Invasion from November through December 1943: "The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of two servicemen, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.  Navy Lt. Francis B. McIntyre of Mitchell, S.D., will be buried on Sept. 29, and Aviation Radioman Second Class William L. Russell of Cherokee, Okla., will be buried on Oct. 1. Both men will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. On Nov. 10, 1943, the two men took off on a bombing and strafing mission in their SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber from Munda Field, New Georgia, in the Solomon Islands.  Witnesses last saw the aircraft flying at low altitude through a large explosion on an enemy airfield on Buka Island, Papua New Guinea.  None reported seeing the crash of the aircraft itself.  The American Graves Registration Service searched numerous South Pacific Islands in 1949 in an ... Continue Reading