Looks like AUKUS is getting real(ish)

Posted on by Leave a comment

The Virginia-class USS Colorado (SSN 788) arrived at Perth’s HMAS Stirling last week for a scheduled month-long Submarine Maintenance Period, marking the fourth SMP in Western Australia since the AUKUS security partnership began.

Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Colorado arrives at HMAS Stirling for a scheduled Submarine Maintenance Period in Western Australia. *** Local Caption *** The United States Submarine Maintenance Period 2026 (USSMP26) marks an important step in Australia’s preparations for the establishment of Submarine Rotational Force-West (SRF-W), which is on track to commence from 2027. The USS Colorado’s visit to HMAS Stirling will demonstrate Australia’s growing ability to sustain US and UK nuclear-powered sub

GARDEN ISLAND, Australia (Oct. 27, 2026) – Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Colorado (SSN 788) arrives at HMAS Stirling, Western Australia on Oct. 27, 2026, for a planned submarine maintenance period (SMP) supporting AUKUS, the trilateral security agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. During the SMP, more than 30 fully trained and certified Australian civilian technicians from ASC Pty Ltd. will perform routine maintenance on a Virginia-class submarine in Western Australia

The previous three boats included USS Hawaii (SSN-776), supported by the USS Emory S. Land (AS-39), from August to September 2024; USS Vermont (SSN-792) without tender support from October to November 2025 and with a blended USN/RAN workforce; and the far-ranging RN Astute-class sub HMS Anson (S 123) from February to March 2026, which integrated local Australian-made components and systems into the boat.

Key activities to be undertaken during Colorado’s upcoming Maintenance Period include:

  • The installation of an Australian-made sail maintenance scaffolding, also known as a ‘racetrack’, which will sit around the submarine during its time at HMAS Stirling –  giving workers safe and rapid access to carry out submarine maintenance work
  • Personnel from Australia, the UK and the US working side-by-side to conduct off-hull capability demonstrations using specialized training equipment and locally produced submarine components
  • Australian personnel conducting in-hull maintenance work, including replacing the thin line towed array and ship repairs
  • Use of the newly upgraded Diamantina Pier at HMAS Stirling, demonstrating Australia’s increased readiness to sustain conventionally-armed nuclear-powered submarines.
  • Australian personnel (supported by US personnel) conducting simulated radiological scenarios that exercise radiation safety practices and procedures, with no radioactive waste being transferred ashore.

This is important as Colorado, a Block III Virginia packing 12 VLS slots along with her torpedo tube-launched weapons, is a fairly new boat, just eight years in the fleet. Based at Pearl, she is slated to be the first boat assigned to the Perth-based Submarine Rotational Force-West (SRF-West) beginning in late 2027. The deployment will last about one year.

The Australians, whose submarine arm dates back to 1914 with HMAS AE1 and AE2, currently operate six aging Collins-class SSKs (the youngest commissioned 23 years ago) and have roughly 850 men in the branch.

They plan to buy purchase three-to-five used Virginias in the early 2030s as a decade-long stopgap measure between the retirement of the Collins-class and the acquisition of five new-built 10,000-ton British-designed/American armed SSN-AUKUS class submarines, which are tentatively set to begin construction at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia in 2027 (hold your breath) with the first entering service with  Rolls-Royce PWR3+ reactors in “the late 2030s.”

Read that as the RAN will probably run their surplus Ginnys for 20 years without replacement.

Either way, RAN says it has 230 personnel in various stages of the U.S. nuclear-powered submarine training pipeline, with 400 to be on hand by 2030. A retired Australian admiral says a force of 3,000 nuke-qualified submariners will be needed to operate five SSNs, and recruitment will obviously need to step up robustly.

Further, the Brits are putting all their eggs in the SSN-AUKUS basket, intending to buy “up to 12” boats, built at BAE Systems’ Barrow-in-Furness shipyard and Rolls-Royce’s Raynesway facility, to replace their seven hard-used Astutes. Steel cutting for the first British SSN-AUKUS is scheduled for 2027 and operational entry in the late 2030s.

Read that as the Brits will probably get six Ginnys of their own in the 2030s. Perhaps with a Submarine Rotational Force-Atlantic (SRF-Lant) kicking off in the late 2020s with a forward-deployed Ginny at, say, Holy Loch.

I mean, I want AUKUS to work and would love the Brits to have 12 and the RAN to have at least five, but the track record isn’t there.

Hopefully I am wrong.

Why can’t we have nice things…

Posted on by Leave a comment

It is hard to look at our LCS and stillborn FFG program then see something like this.

Check out this great overhead shot of the 6,600-ton Iver Huitfeldt-class frigate HDMS Niels Juel (F-363) of the Royal Danish Navy.

Forward you have a pair of OTO Melara 76mm guns, while the amidships “missile deck” holds 16 Harpoon Block II cans, and a 32-cell Mark 41 VLS for SM-2 IIIAs, flanked by two 12-cell Mk.56 VLS for Enhances Sea Sparrows. Aft is a Oerlikon Millennium 35mm CIWS, overlooking the helo deck atop the hangar for an MH-60R Seahawk. Not seen are two pairs of  MU90 Impact 324mm ASW torpedo launchers.

The Harpoons are being replaced missile-per-missile with the NSM while her soft kill countermeasures (Terma Mk 137 130mm decoy launchers and Seagnat Mark 36 SRBOCs) are being augmented by the new Rheinmetall  Multi Ammunition Softkill System (MASS).

A great in-depth 45 minute doc on another Huitfield, HDMS Peter Willemoes, is here.

Respective ends of eras, in passing

Posted on by Leave a comment

As the man said, “You can’t take a picture of this, it’s already gone.”

Here we see, in this circa October 1989 U.S. Navy image from the National Archives, a PBR Mark II riverine patrol boat escorts the British patrol submarine HMS Ocelot (S 17) into the Miraflores Locks during the latter’s transit of the Panama Canal.

Photo by PH1 (Sw) J. Elliott, 330-CFD-DN-SN-90-08113, NAID: 6453615

Introduced in the early 1960s for use in the Brown Water Navy in Vietnam’s myriad inshore rivers and streams, the Patrol Boat, Riverine, or PBR, was an Apocalypse Now-icon worthy staple of Operation Game Warden in both its 31-foot MK I and improved 32-foot MK II varieties.

With over 300 produced, most PBRs were handed over to the South Vietnamese by 1972 but a handful were retained for use by USNR small boat units in California and the Canal Zone until circa 1995.

Likewise, Ocelot, one of 13 Oberon-class diesel boats built for the Royal Navy in the early 1960s and the last submarine built for the Royal Navy at Chatham Dockyard, was, in the above image, like the PBR, coming to an end of her career and would be paid off less than two years after the above image was snapped.

HMS Ocelot paying off. Much of her Cold War history is still classified. 

Decommissioned in August 1991 after a 27-year career, she is preserved at Chatham Historic Dockyard.

You now have a choice between War Daddy and Indy

Posted on by Leave a comment

Smith & Wesson went the extra mile for wheel gun enthusiasts this week, paying tribute to the famed M1917 while also adding a revolver fans have waited years for.

As we have detailed in the past, the U.S. Army Model 1917 revolver in .45 ACP was one of the company’s first big N-frame “triple lock” revolvers. Using two 3-round “half-moon” clips or a single six-shot “full moon” to accommodate the rimless .45 ACP, 150,000 S&W M1917s were delivered to the Army before the end of the Great War, and they were often standard-issue for specialist soldiers such as dispatch riders, military police, tankers, and machine gunners through WWII.

Wartime S&W M1917s had plain wooden grips and a lanyard ring. (Photo: U.S. Army Signal Corps image circa 1918, via the National Archives)

The new “no lock” S&W Model 22 is headed to market in both a 1917 clone with much the same features as the original, along with a Classic variant that recalls the common conversion often seen with such “war babies,” primarily a shorter 4-inch barrel as seen in the famed “Stembridge” guns used by Dr. Jones in the 1981 classic, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

The new S&W Model 22s, with the more “Indy” 4-inch Classic on the left, and the more “Fury” 1917 on the right. (Photos unless noted: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Side by side, you get a better idea of the differences. Both are N-frame .45s, but the Classic can use either .45 ACP or rimmed .45 Colt in its cylinder. Meanwhile, the 1917 is ACP only.

Both have smooth wood grips and a lanyard ring, recalling the revolver that was originally meant to fight the Kaiser.

Note the barrel-profile differences: the M1917 uses a simple half moon, while the Classic carries a red ramped front sight, like what you would see on a more modern combat magnum.

Either way, these are great-looking revolvers that look like they “belong in a museum” while still being range-ready.

Plus, with the Classic especially, you could make a case for it as a good sidearm for those headed into dangerous predator country when loaded with heavy cast bullets.

The MSRP on the new Smith & Wesson Model 22s in .45 is $1,299.

That time Checkpoint Charlie armored up

Posted on by One comment

Some 65 years ago this week.

The intersection of Friedrichstraße and Zimmerstraße at the sector boundary between Communist East and NATO-allied West Berlin.

The Cold War armor, face-to-face: three M48A1s from F Coy, 40th Armored Regiment, U.S. Army’s Berlin Brigade, stand tall against East German border forces backed by Soviet troops.

Note the MPs, likely of the 287th Military Police Company, observing from the building’s windows just above the apothecary shop. U.S. Army photo

The “Turner Tankers” carry dozer blades and 18-inch spotlights, ideal for fighting in cities. U.S. Army photo

U.S. Army photo

Following the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, a dispute arose when East German Grenztruppen border guards tried to check the identity papers of U.S. diplomatic personnel crossing into East Berlin. U.S. authorities refused to submit to East German control, maintaining that the city was under Four-Power Allied jurisdiction.

Maj. Gen. Lucius D. Clay (USMA 1918), never one to muck about, deployed the above platoon of M48s to the border, while the Russkis moved 10 T-54/T-55 tanks into opposing positions just 100 meters away, with the Americans sending up enough matching Pattons to balance.

The armored standoff lasted only 16 hours, then both sides withdrew in a negotiated, synchronized withdrawal.

Company F, 40th Armor, was the regiment’s old 6th Medium Tank Battalion when, on 2 May 1958, it was redesignated and assigned to the Berlin Brigade, its home for 34 years.

Later, swapping out its M48s for M60s, it expanded to the 6th Battalion, 40th Armor from September 1990 until May 1992, when it was withdrawn, at which time it was using the M1 Abrams.

M60 main battle tanks of Co. F, 40th Armor, Berlin Bde, Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin. 17 December 1980.

More Crazy Numbers from CVW-9

Posted on by Leave a comment

An update to the tally for Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 9, embarked aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), which just returned from a 322-day deployment to the Middle East, including over 150 days in a combat zone.

These are individual squadron return snippets:

Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 41, flying the F/A-18F Super Hornet, logged over 4,500 flight hours while executing over 2,400 sorties, including 807 combat sorties. They expended 394,227 pounds of ordnance and successfully destroyed 33 one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicles and anti-ship cruise missiles.

An F/A-18F Super Hornet, assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 41, launches from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), Oct. 1, 2026. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist ¬¬¬Seaman Cesar Zavala)

Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 133: Flying the EA-18G Growler, the squadron logged 2,284 flight hours across 1,190 sorties, including 720 combat hours.

An EA-18G Growler, assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 133, prepares to launch from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), Oct. 1, 2026. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Angel Campbell)

Airborne Command and Control Squadron (VAW) 117 flew more than 2,939 hours and completed 745 carrier-arrested landings while increasing qualifications and experience throughout the command. An amazing accomplishment for a four-aircraft det.

An E-2D Hawkeye, assigned to Airborne Command & Control Squadron (VAW) 117, prepares to launch from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), Oct. 1, 2026. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Angel Campbell)

Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 71: The squadron logged more than 5,800 flight hours across 1,990 sorties, including 1,963 combat hours. The squadron’s maintenance department played a critical role in maintaining the squadron’s operational readiness, completing over 100,000 maintenance hours throughout the deployment to keep HSM-71’s 10 MH-60R Sea Hawks airborne across four warships.

An MH-60R Sea Hawk, assigned to Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 71, takes off from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), Sept. 13, 2026. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Cesar Zavala)

Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 14 logged more than 3,000 total flight hours across 1,032 sorties, including 940 combat flight hours. Their aircraft and crews successfully transferred 900 personnel and 750 critical parts for 12 ships and 88 aircraft in a contested combat environment, while maintaining continuous Search and Rescue (SAR) readiness to support CSG-3 and CVW-9 over 300 days at sea. Over 10 months, the squadron defended the carrier during multiple Hellfire engagements against enemy air and surface threats, moved over 14 million pounds of cargo and ordnance, and transported over 900 personnel within the CSG.

An MH-60S Sea Hawk, assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 14, transfers cargo on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) during a vertical replenishment with John Lewis-class replenishment oiler USNS Earl Warren (T-AO-207), Sept. 11, 2026. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Shepard Fosdyke-Jackson)

Fleet Logistics Multi-Mission Squadron (VRM) 30, Detachment 2 (three CMV-22B Ospreys). The squadron successfully executed 269 logistics sorties, transporting critical personnel, high-priority cargo, and mail between the carrier, other ships within the strike group, and shore facilities. The high-performing detachment executed eight complex moves, logging 825 flight hours, 269 sorties, and 159 combat flight hours. The squadron delivered 340,069 pounds of cargo, 1,669 passengers, and 85 distinguished visitors. The detachment also completed the first-ever long-range sortie requiring midair refueling, delivering parts over 1,350 miles on 38 occasions.

A CMV-22B Osprey from Fleet Logistics Multi-Mission Squadron (VRM) 30, assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 9 embarked aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), returns to its home station at Naval Air Station North Island, Calif., following 10 months of operations in the U.S. 5th and 7th Fleet areas of operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Alexander Timewell)

Three key squadrons, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 314, Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 14, and Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 151, have not been published.

I will add them if they pop up.

An F/A-18E Super Hornet, assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 14, launches from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), Oct. 1, 2026.  (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist ¬¬¬Seaman Cesar Zavala)

An F/A-18E Super Hornet, assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 151, launches from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), Oct. 1, 2026. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist ¬¬¬Seaman Cesar Zavala)

An F-35C Lightning II, assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 314, prepares to launch from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), Oct. 1, 2026. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Angel Campbell)

Unconquered

Posted on by Leave a comment

Abbreviated Warship Wednesday, as I am on the road at an industry event in New England.

With that, how about a throwback to “old” England?

Some 85 years ago this week, the 13,000-ton County-type heavy cruiser HMS Kent (54), seen in October 1941, fresh off refit and attached to the 1st Cruiser Squadron, Home Fleet, at Scapa Flow.

By LT R G G Coote, Royal Navy official photographer, IWM A 6165

Ordered under the 1924-25 Estimates from HM Dockyard, Chatham, and commissioned in June 1928, Kent spent most of her pre-war career in the Far East and, ironically, even attended the Grand Coronation Review for the newly-installed Emperor Hirohito in Tokyo Bay.

She looked much different, sporting a gleaming peacetime white-and-buff livery.

British cruiser HMS Kent launched at Chatham dockyard on 16 March 1926. NH 60057

British cruiser HMS Kent, Manila Bay, 20 January 1931. U.S. Navy ONI file. NH 60061

With sisters Berwick, Cornwall, Cumberland, and Suffolk, 1938 Janes

September 1939 found Kent as flag of 5th Cruiser Squadron on the China Station, from where she immediately went out searching for German shipping.

By August 1940, she was transferred to the 3rd Cruiser Squadron for service with the Mediterranean Fleet and was promptly hit by an Italian torpedo bomber while bombarding Fort Capo d’Africa the next month.

Shipped back the long way around Africa via Alexandria, Aden, Mombasa, Simonstown, and Freetown, Kent spent eight months at Portsmouth for repairs and rebuilds, picking up new AAA guns and assorted radars in the process.

She then started clocking in on North Atlantic convoys, particularly on the dangerous Russian run, even carrying Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden on one trip to Murmansk. She ultimately rode shotgun on 44 convoys during the war, including those in the Atlantic (1942-43) and the Indian Ocean in 1940.

Kent spent 1944 in a series of anti-shipping ops off Norway and distant covering for the Normandy landings with the 1st Cruiser Squadron. Then, worn out, was nominated to be paid off in December 1944.

Laid up in March 1945, Kent was placed on the Disposal List in 1947 and sold to BISCO the next year, then towed to Troon for breaking up.

She received three battle honors for her WWII service (Atlantic 1940, Mediterranean 1940, and Arctic 1942-43).

Her motto was Invicta (Unconquered).

Hitchiti’s final mission

Posted on by Leave a comment

Aerial broadside view of the USS Hitchiti (ATF-103) underway off the coast of Hawaii, 12 January 1970, by Chief Photographer’s Mate T.J. Taylor, National Archives K-81123

Named for a North Florida/South Georgia Creek tribe, the 205-foot Abnaki (Apache)-class fleet tug USS Hitchiti (ATF-103) was built at the Charleston Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. over nine months from August 1943 to May 1944.

Her first of 21 U.S. Navy skippers was LT Harry Alonzo Guthrie, a regular who had volunteered in 1927 and worked his way up through the ranks.

After shakedown in the Chesapeake Bay area, Hitchiti sailed for the Pacific, reaching Pearl Harbor with four tows (AFDL-32, YO-94, YO-95, and YTB-376) on 26 August 1944. She then took part in the Leyte Gulf landings, followed by towing and rescue operations during the hard-fought Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns as the Pacific war drew near to the Japanese home islands in the spring of 1945, earning two battle stars (Luzon operation and Okinawa Gunto operation).

Among other notable missions was shepherding the bomb-damaged USS Blessman (DE-69/APD-48) from Iwo Jima, which had been hit by a Japanese Betty while carrying the men of UDT-15, to safety in Saipan. Hitchiti also escorted USS Hazelwood from Okinawa to Ulithi after a kamikaze had stripped most of her superstructure.

Following occupation service, our tug was sent to the West Coast to be laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, San Francisco Group, in 1948.

Reactivated for Korea, she earned three battle stars there (Communist China Spring Offensive 1951, UN Summer Fall Offensive 1951, and Korean Defense Summer-Fall 1952).

Her third war earned her the Vietnam Service Medal with three campaign stars between August 1964 and August 1967. Hitchiti notably pulled LCU–1494 from a beach near Danang and salvaged a Marine Corps LVT at Phu Thuin in December 1965, picked up the mined Coconino County (LST 603) inside the mouth of the Cua Viet River and delivered her to Danang, and towed Summit County (LST 1146) off the beach after patching her and pumping out the engine room.

Besides the above, she had seven back-to-back Westpac cruises which saw her clocking in for roles as diverse as helping with U.S. nuclear testing at Johnston Island in 1958 (Hardtack I) and 1962 (Fishbowl) and conducting a two-month birdlife study on South Pacific islands for the Smithsonian Institute– the latter cataloged in Folders 7-8 SIC 7 and assorted field books in Record Unit 245 National Museum of Natural History, Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program. She also rescued the USS Diodon (SS 349) after the submarine suffered a fire and lost propulsion, and towed the sub to Yokosuka.

Decommissioned a second time, she was transferred to Mexico by cash sale under the Security Assistance Program in September 1979, renamed ARM Chac (R-55), and served the Armada for another 42 years, though with far fewer wars, retiring in June 2021 as ARM Cora (ARE 04).

The mighty Hitchiti/Chac/Cora completed her last mission earlier this month, sinking off Manzanillo as part of the Sistema Arrecifal Artificial de Colima program so her stripped, cleaned hulk can help develop a sanctuary for local marine flora and fauna.

The steel that served for over 70 years under two flags is now an “opportunity to boost biodiversity, strengthen sustainable tourism, and preserve naval history and culture.”

Notably, her first skipper, LT Guthrie, retired in 1955 as an LCDR, ending a 28-year naval career. He went on to work for the Post Office in Santa Cruz, California, and died in 1988 at age 79.

Overachiever Gets her Ticket

Posted on by Leave a comment

Ground crews prepare to launch F-117 Stealth Fighters from Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. at the direction of the Secretary of Defense, William Perry, in response to an Iraqi missile attack against two F-16s flying over the northern no-fly zone. The 49th Fighter Wing F-117 Nighthawks were headed to Kuwait. By MSGT. Val Gempis. Published in Airman Magazine, November 1996. Exact Date Shot Unknown. 330-CFD-DF-ST-98-06090

Lockheed built a grand total of 64 F-117 Nighthawk airframes (5 YF-117A Scorpions, 59 operational F-117As) in the 1980s.

Not a lot.

Of those, one, 82-0806 (Something Wicked), was famously shot down over Belgrade in 1999, with her remains housed in assorted Serbian museums, while another six were lost to accidents between 1982 and 2008, when the type was retired.

Since then, the Air Force has demilitarized four YF models and 12 F models for use as base gate guards or loaned to museums (seven of them on federally operated reservations), leaving an estimated 40 F-117 airframes in inventory, stored and maintained in Type 1000 recallable storage or used at the Tonopah Test Range Airport in Nevada as “red air” adversary aggressors to train U.S. pilots against stealth targets, and for use as testbeds for radar and sensor development as stand-ins for stealthy cruise missiles. Lockheed is supporting this aging fleet of ‘Hawks through 2034.

Since 2021, the USAF has disposed of about four stored F-117 airframes per year.

The latest to get her retirement papers is 85-0818 (The Overachiever), which lived up to her moniker as she flew in all four major conflicts in which Nighthawks flew combat operations: Operation Just Cause (Panama, 1989), Desert Storm (1991, Gulf War), Allied Force (1999, Yugoslavia), and Iraqi Freedom (2003).

During her 1991 participation in Desert Storm, Overachiever flew 1,271 sorties alone, achieving an 80 percent mission success rate while suffering no battle damage.

Catching a ride earlier this month in an equally rare C-5M Super Galaxy (52 in existence) from the Air Force Reserve’s 512th Airlift Wing, Overachiever will be displayed at the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, which logs more than a million visitors each year.

Airmen assigned to the Air Force Reserve’s 512th Airlift Wing pose with personnel from Lockheed Martin, Air & Space Forces Magazine, and the Smithsonian Institution for a photo in front of a wingless F-117A Nighthawk before loading it into a C-5M Super Galaxy in Palmdale, Calif., Oct. 5, 2026. The demilitarization process that qualifies an aircraft for museum display requires close cooperation between the War Department and its industry partner. Credit: Air Force Staff Sgt. Alexis Morris VIRIN: 261005-F-LI355-9871

And via Lockheed, reassembled and display-ready:

Over the Moon

Posted on by Leave a comment

About 100 years ago this week, the Officers of Marine Aviation at Brown Field, Quantico, Virginia, sent an invitation to participate in a “Hop” Over the Moon in what appear to be Boeing O-2s. The costumed dance was scheduled for 22 October 1926.

From the Alfred A. Cunningham Collection (COLL/3034) at the Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division

In 1926, Marine Corps Aviation operated a modest fleet of roughly 100 aircraft. During this interwar transition period—shortly before active interventions like the Nicaraguan Campaign—the Marine Corps phased out surplus World War I-era biplanes and attempted to modernize its inventory.

Marine Corps Boeing O2B-1, 1920s

Primary Aircraft Types in Service (1926)

  1. Observation & Light Bombardment
  • De Havilland DH-4B / O2B-1 (Boeing/Curtiss):
    • The workhorse of Marine Aviation during the 1920s. Originally a WWI-era biplane, many were modernized around 1925–1926 (redesignated as the O2B-1), with steel-tube fuselages replacing older wood frames. They were used extensively for observation, mail delivery, recon, and light bombing.
  1. Fighters & Pursuit Biplanes
  • Curtiss F6C Hawk Series (F6C-1 / F6C-2):
    • Marine Fighting Squadrons (such as VF-1M and VF-2M) operated early variants of the Curtiss Hawk fighter.

      Three Curtiss F6C-4 Hawks are seen flying over Quantico in 1931. From the Frederick H. Smith Collection (COLL/3072) at the Marine Corps Archives and Special Collections

  • Boeing FB Series (FB-1 / FB-3):
    • Boeing produced early carrier/land-based naval fighters that served Marine fighting squadrons in small numbers.
  1. Training & Utility Aircraft
  • Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” / N9:
    • Primary trainers used for primary flight instruction at bases like Quantico and San Diego.
  • Consolidated NY-1:
    • Introduced in 1926 to replace aging WWI-era primary trainers.
  1. Transports & Flying Boats
  • Fokker / Ford Stout Transports:
    • Late 1926 marked the beginning of multi-engine transport evaluations (leading to the adoption of Fokker trimotors like the TA-1).
  • Curtiss HS-2L / Macchi Flying Boats:
    • Operated in limited numbers for coastal patrol and amphibian duties.
  • Loening OL-6 amphibians: Six Loening OL-6 amphibians from VO-10M deployed with a U.S. Marine force sent to Shanghai and Tientsin (Tianjin), China, in 1927, operating from Hsin Ho Airfield.

    “Loening OL-6 #7329 in front of hangar, Sumary, Guam, 1929.” From the Clayton Smith Collection (COLL/1224) at the Marine Corps Archives and Special Collections

Authorized Strength: Throughout the mid-1920s, Marine Corps Aviation’s authorized officer strength was capped at around 100 officers, with roughly 800–900 enlisted personnel.

The 1926 Five-Year Naval Aviation Plan: Enacted by Congress in July 1926, this act set a target to “expand total Navy/Marine Corps aviation strength to 1,000 modern operational aircraft over five years,” kicking off a major modernization wave in 1927.

However, the Marines would only end up with 204 operational aircraft by Pearl Harbor.

By VJ Day, the service had more than 10,000 aircraft of all types in 153 authorized squadrons in 30 Marine Air Groups (MAGs) and five Marine Air Wings (MAWs), with four out of five of the latter in the Pacific and one on the East Coast.

« Older Entries