Reflections on the E-2 Hawkeye’s 50th Anniversary
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Reflections on the E-2 Hawkeye’s 50th Anniversary

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…

Project CADILLAC: The Beginning of AEW in the US Navy (Part III)
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Project CADILLAC: The Beginning of AEW in the US Navy (Part III)

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…

Project CADILLAC: The Beginning of AEW in the US Navy (Part II)
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Project CADILLAC: The Beginning of AEW in the US Navy (Part II)

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…

Project CADILLAC: The Beginning of AEW in the US Navy
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Project CADILLAC: The Beginning of AEW in the US Navy

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…

A Golden Anniversary: The Hawkeye At 50
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A Golden Anniversary: The Hawkeye At 50

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,…

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E-2D Advanced Hawkeye – Death By A Thousand Cuts?

Disclaimer: I am not nor have I ever been an employee of N-G.  Yes, I have over 3,000 hours in their E-2C and it is with that time, and the experiences it has brought across a wide playing field that the following is submitted. – SJS The final deliveries of supplies and materials for the…

E-2D Update

Full story here:  Flight-Test Program Accelerates For U.S. Navy’s E-2D Couple of items worth noting: Within three years, the U.S. Navy’s fleet will have fielded the technology for precisely locating small, flying targets. The target set embraces some of the Navy’s latest nightmares, including the next-generation of stealthy – sometimes supersonic – cruise missiles.Moreover, with…

Foras una, multa: VAW Forty-One Years Later

Pausing for a moment to acknowledge this signatory event in VAW history before returning to the discussion on the Maritime Strategy later today… -SJS 1967: VAW-11 (West coast) and VAW-12 (East coast) constitute the two largest squadrons in the Navy with some 200 officers and 800 enlisted each.  Each squadrom supports 4 plane E-1B Tracer…