NAVY * AIRCRAFT

Sea Power,  Jan 2004  

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The Improved Capability (ICAP III) program will provide EA-6B aircraft with a selective reactive jamming capability and better reliability, and will improve the employment of the HARM and increase battlefield situational awareness of joint forces. The ICAP III will provide an upgrade of the ALQ-99 receiver system, integration of the USQ-113, and various connectivity avionics. A competitive contract for modification of two EA-OBs to the ICAP III configuration was awarded in March 1998. Low-rate initial production was approved in june 2003; production deliveries are planned for 2004, with IOC scheduled for March 2005. Other major Prowler upgrades include the Multifunctional Information Distribution System; Low band Transmitter; Modified band 9/10 Transmitter (Band-7/-8); Universal Exciter Upgrade, and the J-52-P-408B Engine Upgrade.

The Navy plans to replace the EA-6B in fleet squadrons with the EA-18G beginning in FY 2009.

S-3B VIKING

BRIEFING: Lockheed built 187 S-3A carrier-based ASW aircraft between 1973 and 1978. Initially designed to counter the massive Soviet naval threat, the Viking's four aircrew used sonobuoys, electronic surveillance measures (ESM), APS-116 radar, forward-looking infrared (FLIR), and magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) to detect and track surface and sub-surface contacts. Beginning in 1988, the Navy modernized 119 S-SAs into much-improved S-3Bs (with APS-137 inverse synthetic-aperture radar (ISAR) and Harpoon cruise-missile capability). The unusual versatility of this aircraft was demonstrated during Desert Storm when S-SBs engaged in force-interdiction operations in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, flew "SCUDCAP" missions in western Iraq, bombed an Iraqi AAA site in Kuwait, provided emergency tanker service throughout the theater, and took part in mine-detection operations in the Persian Gulf. Additionally, S-SBs from VS-24 and VS-32 bombed and sank Iraqi patrol boats during Desert Storm. This was the first "combat action" and destruction of surface units by the S-3B Viking aircraft.

In 1999, the Navy removed the acoustic ASW and aerial mining systems from the S-SB, but retained its surveillance, antisurface warfare, and critical aerial refueling roles. With the retirement of the A-6E in 1997, the S-3B became the sole organic refueling platform in the aircraft carrier task force until the operational debut of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in 2002.

During Operation Enduring Freedom, forward-deployed S-3B Viking tankers flew more than 200 percent over their normal flight hours underway, an unprecedented effort enabling air wing strike fighters to reach their assigned kill boxes and return safely to the aircraft carrier from Afghanistan.

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, a VS-38 S-3B made history on March 25, 2003, with the first-ever combat launch of a laser-guided Maverick missile, which severely damaged a significant naval target in the Tigris River near Basra, Iraq. Two months later, a VS-35 S-3B made U.S. history as the first naval aircraft to be called "NAVY 1," carrying President George W. Bush to a landing on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72).