Tailhook Daily Briefing

Blue Angles CO, Cmdr. Dave Koss Relieved

The Commanding Officer of the Blue Angles has requested to be relieved of his command citing his failure to meet "Airborne Standards" necessary to safely lead the team.  See the Commander Naval Air Forces Official Release below:

COMMANDER

NAVAL AIR FORCES 

PRESS RELEASE 

Naval Air Forces 

Naval Air Station North Island 

San Diego, CA 92135 

(619) 767-1625 

Fax: (619) 545-1140 

May 27, 2011 PRESS RELEASE #: 2011017

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Blue Angels C.O. Relieved 

 

Chief of Naval Air Training, Rear Adm. Bill Sizemore, relieved Cmdr. Dave Koss, Commanding Officer of the Naval Flight Demonstration Squadron Friday, May 27, at his request following a lower-than-normal maneuver during the team’s last performance at the Lynchburg Regional Air Show May 22. 

“With deep personal regret I shared with my command today that I will be voluntarily leaving the greatest flight demonstration team. I performed a maneuver that had an unacceptably low minimum altitude,” said Koss. “This maneuver, combined with other instances of not meeting the airborne standard that makes the Blue Angels the exceptional organization that it is, led to my decision to step down. I have the utmost respect for the Sailors and Marines of the Blue Angels organization and all that they embody. The reason this team is so successful, brings thrills to millions of fans across America, and represents the U.S. Navy so superbly is because of the absolute commitment to safety and perfection by every member of the team. I am honored to have been a part of this organization and I look forward to watching its success in the future.” 

Koss will be replaced by Capt. Greg McWherter, who was the previous Blue Angels’ Commanding Officer, for the duration of the season. 

This move requires the cancellation of the Blue Angels’ scheduled performances at the Rockford Airfest June 4-5 and the Evansville Freedom Festival Air Show June 11-12. The Blue Angels will remain in Pensacola for additional training and air show demonstration practice. Any potential changes to the team's future schedule will be announced at a later date. 

The Blue Angels regret any inconvenience and look forward to continuing to represent the Navy and Marine Corps service members serving around the world. 

-CNAF-

Osama is Dead

Thank You…

Union Fires Stagehand for Wearing USS GHWB (CVN-77) Hat and Sweatshirt

A union stagehand was apparently "let go" after he refused to remove the USS GHWB hat and sweatshirt he was wearing in honor of his son's service on the carrier.

The stagehand was woking on a stage set up for President Obama.

 

Fifty!

A half a century ago, back when Naval Aviation was a wee 49 years old, a ship was born that would be the example and the benchmark for many years to come.

Today the USS Enterprise, CVN-65 turns 50!

She, with her iconic conning tower and now irrelevant catapult horns, has stood the test of time for 50 years serving the American People in their defense and in their support.

The eighth ‘Enterprise’ CVN-65 has chalked up a number of firsts in her illustrious career.  The most obvious being the first nuclear powered carrier.  But the list of achievements by this ship and her crew does not end there.

• On December 19, 1962, an E-2A piloted by Lt. Cmdr. Lee M. Ramsey was catapulted off the Enterprise in the first shipboard test of nose-tow gear designed to replace the catapult bridle and reduce launching intervals.
• On 13 May 1964, the world's first nuclear-powered task force was formed when USS Long Beach (CGN 9) and USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25) (CGN 7) joined Enterprise. On July 31, 1964, the ships were designated Task Force One and, leaving Gibraltar, sailed on Operation Sea Orbit, an historic 65-day, 30,216-mile voyage around the world, accomplished without a single refueling or replenishment.
• Enterprise became the first nuclear-powered ship to engage in combat when it launched bomb-laden aircraft in a projection of power against the Viet Cong near Bien Hoa on December 2, 1965. USS Enterprise launched 125 sorties on the first day, unleashing 167 tons of bombs and rockets on the enemy's supply lines. The next day it set a record of 165 strike sorties in a single day.
• The first operational F-14A Tomcat made its maiden landings and take-offs from the "Big E" on March 18, 1974, and when USS Enterprise made its seventh western Pacific deployment in September 1974, it became the first carrier to deploy with the new fighter plane (VF-1 Wolfpack and VF-2 Bounty Hunters).

• When USS Enterprise deployed in 1986, it became the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to transit the Suez Canal.

She is expected to make it to 53 years in service before finally winning her much deserved rest.  She has served us well.

Happy Birthday Big E!

Photos From the Tailhook 2010 Front Lines

Your Humble Scribe cannot be at this year’s Tailhook Symposium and reunion in Reno, but not to fear!  I have recruited a couple of stalwarts in the Tailhook Community to help me out, Hans and Kathy Schmoldt!

I just received a couple of “Images from the Front Lines” that I am glad to pass on to our faithful readers. (Fair warning many of these images and comments are being transmitted direct from Han’s iPhone thus the details surrounding them are limited at best.)

Below is the award presented to NFO of the Year LCDR David Rueter (and I assume Hizzoner himself).  Lemme guess, call sign “Roto”?

 

Hans then pinged me with another quick brief regarding the awarding of the most “Straight Deck” landings (440) to Diz Laird pictured here with Hans. Diz Laird has the singular distinction of having shot down not only Japanese but German aircraft in WW II.

Additionally Hans forwarded a few of our resident Colorado Ready Room Members Bad Bart, and Spook!

Also included on the recon dump are images  of Bartlesville's Silver Star recipient Bru and his two employees.

Thank you Hans and Kathy!!!

Keep those images and stories coming in!  And if you too wish to contribute please forward your tales and images directly to me at carmichaelj@comcast.net

Your Tailhook Educational Foundation At Work!

The 2010 Tailhook Educational Foundation Scholarship Winners are announced in the latest edition of “The Hook” (Summer 2010).

This year, 71 scholarships were awarded with grants totaling $193,600! Thanks to your generous donations, our next generation is off to a good start!  Each of the awardees was recognized for having, superior GPA and the highest Scholastic Aptitude Test Scores along with participating in extracurricular activities like sports, student government, or other community services.

Several recipients are also children whose fathers were killed in the line of duty.  We always want to take care of our own!

President of the Tailhook Educational Foundation, RADM Ham Tallent USN(ret), adds,

“…(T)his year we are extremely proud to select two of our
applicants for the TEF/Wagner College Presidential Four Year
Scholarships, one for $17,000 per year and one for $22,000 per year. We also are honored to award a $10,000 donation from the “CAPT Ed Holley, USN(Ret), Trust, Memorial Scholarship.” It is sponsored by family and The Edward B. Holley Trust. (CAPT Holley was a former Blue Angel boss).

A special thanks to all the friends and family of Gary “Quail”
Laughlin for the establishment of our 33rd fully funded scholarship.  Our hats off to CAPT Dave and Sandy Silkey for keeping the ball rolling (donating more than $59,000) and a special happy birthday wish from the Foundation staff to Quail. This is the first time this scholarship will be awarded. Our hats are also off to the Intruder Association for their $40,000 donation and the subsequent funding of our 34th permanent scholarship…

I close my comments with this quote:

“If there is any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not deter or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
                                                          ~William Penn

The Tailhook Educational Foundation is again eligible for your CFC
contributions. Please give generously this fall using CFC
Number 10251. Thank all of you for your kindness, your
donations and your continued support.

Of special note, Tailhook is announcing that the Foundation will be raising money for a fully funded memorial scholarship for Lt. Miroslav Steven Zilberman.

 

2010 TAILHOOK FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS …

For more details of who these fine young people are and which scholarships they were awarded, click here.

And for more information on how you can get involved with the Tailhook Educational Foundation… http://tailhook.org/Foundation.html 

Bravo Zulu all!

Refresher on the Rules of TDY

Someone has some “Splain’n to do!”

It is obvious this man is unfamiliar with the unwritten rules of TDY.  Which include:

1. ALWAYS tell her “They’re MAKING you go…”
2. NEVER whistle while you pack…
3. and ALWAYS come home (in the words of Austin Powers) “A little Randy”

Added to this list should also be…

1. And don’t bonk a line-worker (chock-puller) on the head with the propeller of your aircraft, sending her to the hospital, making the local news, whilst parked on a transient line you shouldn’t be on, in a notoriously sinful city you shouldn’t be near!

Yep, don’t be this guy…

LAS VEGAS -- A pilot’s wife who said she found out her husband was in Las Vegas only after news hit that his plane was involved in an accident where a propeller his a 21-year-old woman’s head Thursday afternoon, said she is convinced her husband is having an affair.

“It’s a rendezvous gone wrong,” she said.

Her husband told her he was going out of town for a business trip -- but not to Las Vegas, she said.

 

The neighbors are going to need some of these.

At Least it wasn’t a Carrier!

News from Navy Times…

Navy to name LPD 26 for Rep. John Murtha

By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Apr 13, 2010 17:46:22 EDT

The Navy’s 10th San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock will be named for Rep. John Murtha, the long-serving Pennsylvania Democrat who chaired the powerful House appropriations defense subcommittee before he died in February.

According to a Navy memorandum obtained by Navy Times, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus notified Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead that he had selected “John P. Murtha” for the previously unnamed LPD 26. It’s the latest example of the Navy breaking a convention for naming its warships; the previous ships in the San Antonio class have been named for American cities.

Breaking with tradition seems to be a bit of a Tradition in our Navy…

The John P. Murtha is not just the latest Navy warship to break with its class naming convention, it’s also the latest amphibious ship to do so. In 2008, Mabus’ predecessor, Donald Winter, named the amphibious assault ship LHA 6 the “America,” bucking the tradition of naming big-deck gators for Marine battles, such as “Makin Island” and “Bataan.”

Is that really in the the same league?

We’re talking John Murtha here… Lest we forget…

In May 2006, during an MSNBC cable TV show appearance that Marines and their families will never forget or forgive, Murtha accused U.S. troops of wantonly killing some two dozen civilians, including children, in the terrorist stronghold of Haditha, Iraq. Bellowed Murtha: “Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.” Murtha publicly indicted the Marines before military investigations had been completed. His remarks opened the military-bashing floodgates around the world.

In the wake of Murtha’s reckless blabbing, MSNBC executioner Keith Olbermann accused the Haditha Marines of “willful targeted brutality.” The Nation magazine claimed that “members of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment perpetrated a massacre.” The New York Times dubbed Haditha the “defining atrocity” of the Iraq war. International papers piled on with Vietnam-era “My Lai” allusions. Murtha cold-bloodedly sat back and enjoyed the ride while the Marines were left twisting in the wind.

By 2008, seven of the Marines charged in the incident had been exonerated or had charged dropped against them. Lt. Andrew Grayson was acquitted. Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, Capt. Lucas McConnell, Lance Cpl. Justin Sharatt, Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, and Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani all had their cases dismissed. Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the last of the Marines facing charges, awaits a long, dragged-out trial this year.

De-constructing Sukhoi's PAK-FA

You may recall that when the PAK-FA first took flight earlier this year a quick analysis was run on my homepage and those over at USNI with a note that more granular analyses would surely be forthcoming. One of the first out of the box was over at the Air Combat site, and was pretty eyebrow raising in it's own right. This past week Byron passed along an even more detailed analysis, all from open source material, that had come his way:

De-constructing the Sukhoi PAK-FA (Su-50) (click here for the brief) In addition to the usual host of subjects - comparison with the only other 5th gen fighter currently flying, the F-22, for one; there are some interesting and perplexing elements to the design. For starters there is the matter of the split canopy (slide 33) with a structural member down the center of the canopy.

The embedded radar antennas in the cheeks and wing leading edges are notable, but not novel as it is alleged the F-22 has embedded sensors around the aircraft. However, a multi-band capability (X-band AESA in the nose and fixed L-band in the cheeks and wings) offers greater operational flexibility and complicates counter-measures planning.

As pointed out earlier, the engines appear to lag the rest of the airframe, but even at that, with German technical assistance (see slide 40) presumably for improvements in the R&D side of the house with targets of efficiency and service life of the engine, the engines should prove sufficient from a performance, if not stealth (see slide 65). Closer to the F-35 in that regard than the F-22.

The fact that of the run of 500, 250 are Russian and the other 250 are to be a two-seat variant for India is worth noting from a resources standpoint (e.g., FMS to India is required to bring the project to fruition, just like the F-35 requires it's share of international sales), though one wonders how much technological access the Indians will be given. This is not a small consideration as technology sharing is a bone of contention between the US and it's F-35 partners, especially where software for the weapons system is concerned. Makes one wonder if a partnership had been entered with Japan and/or Australia what the production cost offsets might have been as well as potential for moving on to a 2nd and 3rd generation F-22.

That technology can range from the exotic, like a potential plasma energy capability which would allegedly function to break the lock of hostile AAM's (see slides 18 & 67) to what looks to be a breakthrough in stealth coatings. The latter, if true, is perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the aircraft because of the implications it carries, not just for the PAK-FA, but generation 4.5 fighters like the Su-35. Stealth coatings have been a major time and materials cost factor for operational aircraft. The B-2 required special climate control hangers for maintenance on its coatings and one of the charges against the still-born A-12 was the beating its coatings would take in the at sea environment on a carrier. If the Russians have indeed turned the corner on a material that provides a 10x reduction in RCS, is substantially thinner (and thereby, lighter), durable in the field and can be applied to generation 4.5 aircraft, that raises the stakes considerably for Western air forces confronting opponents operating aircraft like the Su-35 updated with this material. One needn't look too far to find a near-peer competitor that would have significant interest in applying this to their own fleet of indigenously produced gen 4/4.5 fighters and what that in turn would allow them to put into place from an operational standpoint.

Still, there are only a handful of prototypes and full flight testing is supposed to begin later this month. It is a long road from the CAD/CAM boards to the flight line and as we have found out time and again with the F-117, B-2, F-22 and now with the F-35 that unforeseen issues arise during testing (like avionics cooling - a real bedevilment for stealth aircraft) that force design changes and production delays. One also wonders given the current state of industry in Russia if they will be capable of producing the numbers indicated and within the time-frames evidently agreed to.

Strike Fighter Storm Clouds Continue Forming

It is a well known fact that there is a shortage of strike fighters in the current Navy and Marine Corps inventory, exacerbated by delayed delivery of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and a current op tempo that exceeded original estimates.

The Navy has been trying to stick its finger in the dike with creative solutions like this…

Navy takes aim at ‘fighter gap’

Each Navy strike fighter squadron will lose some of its 10 or 12 aircraft between deployments — one of several details emerging about the service’s plans to ease an upcoming shortage of strike fighters.

The so-called fighter gap is coming as older F/A-18 A through D-model Hornet aircraft reach the end of their operational lives, not enough new E and F Strike Fighters are built to replace them and production of the later F-35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) lags.

In a draft version of an upcoming statement to Congress obtained by Defense News, Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, writes that the reduction in squadron size to “the minimum required” will take place during “non-deployed phases.”

Navy Hornet squadrons already have been reduced to 10 aircraft per squadron. Super Hornet squadrons flying E and F models generally have 12 aircraft each.

The service will accelerate the transition of five F/A-18C squadrons to E or F models using available Super Hornets, the draft statement said, “and will transition two additional legacy squadrons using Super Horner attrition reserve aircraft.”

But now this news…

U.S. Grounds 104 Hornets After More Cracks Discovered

U.S. Naval Air Systems Command grounded 104 U.S. Navy and Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets March 12 after inspectors discovered the airframes were developing cracks much earlier than engineers had thought.

Of the 104 grounded jets, 77 are in flight status. Of those, 23 are in Navy and Marine Corps fleet squadrons; five are forward-deployed at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan; five belong to the Blue Angels flight demonstration team; and 44 are in fleet replacement squadrons. The other 27 Hornets are in a maintenance status.

On top of…

DoD Confirms F-35 IOC Delays, 50% Nunn-McCurdy Breach

Called before Congress to explain delays and cost growth with Lockheed Martin's [LMT] F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Pentagon officials said yesterday the aircraft's initial operational capability (IOC) for the Air Force and Navy will be delayed by years.

In addition, Air Force officials steering the multi-service program "within days" officially will notify Congress it suffered a unit cost breach of more than 50 percent triggering a so-called Nunn-McCurdy recertification to Congress, military-procurement brass told the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC).

More…

IMHO… I think it be time Congress orders up another couple (or more) squadrons worth of Rhinos!  E’s or F’s take your pick.  It is the Navy’s job to be prepared.  How’s that working for you?