First UAV Anti-Ship ‘Kill’?

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The Ukrainian Navy, on its official Facebook page (hey this is war in the 21st Century, here, I’m just surprised it wasn’t announced on Tick Tok first), said the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s Project 1171 (Tapir-class/NATO: Alligator) landing ship (LST) Orsk (148) was sunk while at the dock in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian port city of Berdyansk in the Sea of Azov.

Video shows two Ropucha-(Project 775) class assault ships beating feet from the explosions on Orsk with one having a fire on deck amid debris raining down.

This points to Orsk being hit while unloading munitions.

Janes reports that a video of Orsk offloading BTR-82A armored personnel carriers in Berdyansk was posted on Twitter by Russia’s state-affiliated media channel RT on 21 March.

As the trio of lightly defended Russian ships docked at Berdyansk three days ago at a fixed location and everyone in the region knew it, this is just poor judgment on the behalf of the Black Sea Fleet– akin to the tragic British foul-up at Bluff Cove in the Falklands.

You just don’t leave ‘phibs in unprotected anchorages in daylight where the enemy may have some air power to whistle up, not in modern times.

Orsk in better times. Some 4,700 tons full load, she was part of a 15 ship class built in the 1960s of which the Russians have two left in the Black Sea. They can carry 20-40 vehicles and a battalion of troops.

What sank the Orsk is foggy as some Ukrainian sources claim simple Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 UAVs– which have claimed some 800 vehicle and bunker kills as a type in Syria, Libya, Ethiopia, Armenia and Ukraine in the past few years– launched missiles that resulted in serious secondary explosions on the old LST. If so, it is the first combat ship “kill” by a UAV, which is historic.

More on the Barayktar, the “Drone of the Decade” which is apparently at hit at the DimDex defense expo in Doha, and for good reason.

Of course, others speculate the vessel was hit by a land-based missile system, as the Ukrainian Army has operational Soviet-era 9K52 Luna-Ms/FROG-7s and OTR-21 Tochka-U/SS-21 Scarabs while the Navy has new Р-360 Neptunes– converted Kh-35/AS-20 Kayaks– all of which are truck-mounted.

As it is obvious the Russians had munitions on the dock, poor handling due to non-existent Captain of the Port safeguards and/or sabotage can also not be ruled out.

Daniel Still Getting Some Love from Crane

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The Pentagon announced earlier this week that Georgia-based Daniel Defense has won a large contract issued through the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Crane Division.

Located in Black Creek, Daniel Defense is no stranger to supplying high-speed components to the military’s most elite units, having delivered quad rails and the Rail Interface System II, or RIS II, to the U.S. Special Operations Command for years. Likewise, the company has been a supplier of barrels and gas blocks for SOCOM’s Upper Receiver Group-Improved program.

The URG-I, coupled with a standard M4 lower, is reportedly used by units as diverse as the U.S. Army Rangers and Special Forces. The latest contract for Daniel, a $9.1 million firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity award, is for 11.5-inch and 14.5-inch cold-hammer-forged barrels for URG-Is. 

As the Navy’s FY22 workbook lists the price for these receiver kits- at $780, the contract could cover upwards of 11,000 URGs, enough for most of the trigger pullers in SOCOM. 

The Forgotten Karen (circa 1976)

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The AP Archives recently coughed up a golden oldie 25-minute doc from 1976– which aired less than a year after the fall of Saigon. Covering the Karen rebels in Burma, it is well done and filmed in color, with lots of on-the-ground footage including close-order drills of 15-year old new recruits armed with a collection of M1 Carbines and the occasional M16A1, and a chat with then-Karen National Liberation Army leader, Manh Ba Zan.

And you’ll love how Manh Ba Zan carries his (likely nickel-plated) Colt Commander.

You gotta admit, the sling is relatively safe with the hammer down on an empty chamber, and, as the gun is more a symbol of office than a combat tool, it needs to be seen.

Note the “duck hunter”  “Beo Gam” camo boonies, M1 Carbines, and at least one M1919A6

The official descriptor from the AP:

(11 Mar 1976) RR7610A BURMA: THE KAREN REBELS

For over a quarter of a century, the Karen rebels of Eastern Burma have been fighting a little-publicized war of liberation. The Karens are Burma’s largest minority with a population of at least three million and an army of 10,000, which now includes some school-age boys. In 1975, they agreed on a common front with other groups, including the Shans and the Kachins, which are also trying to wrest autonomy from the one-party state of Burmese President Ne Win, but there has been no major breakthrough yet. This colorful report of a rarely filmed area shows their training and life in their jungle HQ and includes an interview with their political leader Manh Ba Zan.

Sig returns to the rimfire market…

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Sig Sauer has made some rimfire pistols in the past including the almost universally-hated Mosquito (made 2005-2014) and a Umarex-made 1911-22 (2011-2014). However, for the better part of a decade, the company has left the .22LR pistol category to the other guys.

That changed on 3/22 (get it?) with the introduction of the new Sig Sauer P322. Stylistically splitting the difference between the P365 and P320– feeling kinda like both but not being related to either– the P322 is a standalone platform for Sig.

Made and designed in their New Hampshire factory (not in Germany by Umarex like the FN 502 or Beretta M9-22), the new Sig has a lot of things going for it like being optics and suppressor-ready right out of the box, uses 20-round flush-fit magazines, adjustable fiber-optic sights, both a flat and curved trigger shoe included in the box, and a full M1913 accessory rail– the latter something P365 owners wish they had!

Sig had me down to Orlando earlier this month to give the gun a try, and I gotta admit, after putting about 600 rounds through one at the event, and another 500 thus far in a T&E loaner, there may be something to this thing.

More in my column at Guns.com.

The Thin Sunflower Line was Girded with a decade of Training from the U.S.

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The media would have you think that the Ukrainians have only been able to run circles around the Russian juggernaut due to Western military aid, which is partly true but should be expanded upon.

The aid in question is usually chalked up to lots of modern anti-tank weapons and low-level surface-to-air assets. In other words, Javelins, and Stingers. But the thing is, you can’t just drop off some pallets of missiles and call it a day. There had to be a doctrinal change as well.

The Soviets have long had a top-down approach to military command, as, going back to the Russian Civil War, they had no effective professional NCO corps as we know it in the West. Today’s Russian Army is much the same, with their small force of “contract” NCOs more akin to warrant officers in NATO militaries or the old “Tech Sergent” concept of WWII. They are technicians, not leaders. This is fine if you have the muscle to push it, the battlefield is linear, and the commo is constant between upper command and the lowest Ivan in the field. War on an industrial scale with a few managers directing thousands of worker drones with the bare minimum of training for their siloed job. Sure, it is inefficient, but it worked if you had enough bodies. 

You also have to have senior officers leading from the front– which leads to a lot of dead senior officers. Of note, the Russians have lost at least five generals in combat in as many weeks. 

The Ukrainian military, evolved as it was from the old Soviet model, used much the same concept and, when pitted against the Russians in 2013-14 over the Crimea et. al had their clock cleaned as the Russians when big-time asymmetric with irregular forces (“little green men”) that the rigid proto-Soviet Ukrainians couldn’t adapt to counter in time.

Since 2014, the Ukrainians have been schooled extensively in decentralized Western Mission Command (using U.S./UK terms) or Auftrag (German) tactics, which is essentially the opposite of the old Soviet doctrine. Essentially, you give your unit an objective and turn them loose, with the local commanders on the job down to the fireteam level figuring out the best way to crack the nut, so to speak, while giving them access to fires and intel support to keep them going. The theory is that these “bottom-up” battlefield decisions are more free-flowing, less prone to interruption in the case of decapitated leadership nodes, and able to maintain momentum. 

Retired U.S. Army Colonel Liam Collins, a career Green Beret who helped train and reform Ukraine’s military, said that it has turned from a “decrepit” state that “wasn’t effective at the tactical level” into a force more ready to fend off Russian advances in major Ukrainian cities. He speaks to the Mission Command concept in the below video.

To illustrate just how much training has been going on, keep in mind that Ukraine was the first country in the U.S. National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Program, pairing that country with the California Air and Army National Guard which involved both California units traveling to Ukraine to train and hosting Ukrainians in the U.S.

As recently detailed by DOD:

When Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, most pundits believed the Ukrainian military was not up to the task. “Because we work closely with the Ukrainian army, we always thought that the West underestimated them, and the National Guard of Ukraine also,” California Adjutant General Army Maj. Gen. David S. Baldwin said in a recent interview. “We knew that they had radically improved their ability to do kind of Western-style military decision making. I have been impressed though, with their ability at the national level, to work through some of the challenges we thought they still had in terms of logistics and command control.”

The Ukrainians have also demonstrated interagency cooperation. “I think the best story is with their Air Force,” the general said. “Our fighter pilots have been telling everyone for years that the Ukrainian Air Force is pretty good. And in the meantime, a lot of other people in the West were pooh-poohing them.”

“Well, the proof is in the pudding,” he continued. “Their Air Force is a lot better than everyone thought except for the California Air National Guard who knew that these guys were pretty good.”

The air over Ukraine is still contested, more than three weeks after the invasion began.
Baldwin said the effort to train the Ukrainian military is really a team effort. California Guardsmen worked alongside NATO trainers and trainers from the active-duty forces — especially after Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014 and illegally annexed Crimea.
Ukraine’s government turned decisively to the West, and the training took on new importance. Ukrainians were very receptive. Before 2014, the California Guard would send a few dozen trainers at a time to Ukraine. After the Russian invasion, this commitment numbered in the hundreds and training accelerated.

This is more than simply teaching infantry tactics, Baldwin said, although Ukrainian soldiers demonstrated the ability to move, shoot and move.

In training areas in Ukraine and California, the Army Guard and Air Guard in California worked to develop Ukrainian capabilities. If they didn’t have the capability, Baldwin worked with National Guard units around the United States to make sure Ukrainian service members got the training they needed.

It was more than small unit tactics, he said. The Guardsmen worked in logistics and sustainment — the lifeblood of any military. They worked to establish and build a Ukrainian NCO corps. They helped train staff officers in defending against and launching cyber operations.

Guardsmen even worked in the headquarters of the Ukrainian military to establish command and control procedures and help build a Joint Operations Center modeled on what the United States military would have. Guardsmen helped them “reorganize the way that their staffs are organized at the General Staff and at the Ministry of Defense,” he said. “We even embedded (Ukrainian) staff officers as members of our staff.”

Baldwin went to Ukraine in November 2021 and discussed with Ukrainian military leaders the disturbing build-up of Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders. “At the time, they kind of knew that it was coming, but they didn’t want to believe it,” he said. “It wasn’t until January that the most senior Ukrainian leaders started to recognize that this could be a possibility.”

Ukrainian leaders then began talking about specific needs they would have if Russia invaded. “They came within a day or two of predicting when the invasion was going to come,” he said. “But because of that partnership, and our ability to have frank discussions about what they needed in the 11th hour to get ready, it very much helped them prepare, and to do so well in the opening hours of the invasion.”

Last November, the DOD upped the training mission by dispatching 160 members of the Florida National Guard under the banner of the 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, part of Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine, to kick the mission into overdrive.

Termed Task Force Gator, they were pulled out in mid-February just before the Russians crossed the line, cutting short what was planned to be a 9-to-12-month deployment. They took over from a similar unit from the Washington National Guard’s 81st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, known as Task Force Raven.

The force also worked hand-in-hand with NATO training teams from Canada and the UK. 

CIA Clandestine Services officers and contract personnel, many of which are former SF types with years of experience under their belt, have also reportedly been on the ground in Ukraine as well.

Hunley’s ‘Other Submarine’ Found (?)

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Known interchangeably as the Pioneer II or American Diver, a consortium of businessmen and engineers composed of Horace Lawson Hunley, James McClintock, and Baxter Watson constructed a small human-powered submersible in Mobile Bay during the Civil War on their way to producing the final warship (Hunley) which is much better known.

Built in late 1862, the 36-foot vessel was manned by a five-person crew but foundered off Fort Morgan in a sudden squall in February 1863 and was never recovered, leaving Hunley and company to try again.

Lost to time– and long presumed to be buried under tons of mud in the shifting sands of the Bay— a group now thinks they may have found it, just sitting out in the open.

Depths of History and Chaos Divers, in association with historian Shawn Holland– who has been chasing Pioneer II/American Diver as her own white whale for the past 30 years– has even released some images.

While it looks like an old nav buoy to me– and the Bay is surely full of such items after repeated hurricanes over the past few years– the Alabama Historical Commission is apparently getting involved to investigate further.

Update: 

It turned out to be a (surprise surprise) 19th-century bell buoy, which is neat, but not Civil War submarine neat.

Warship Wednesday, Mar. 23, 2022: Mines, Yes, but also U-Boats!

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Mar. 23, 2022: Mines, Yes, but also U-Boats!

Photograph FL 18955 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums

Here we see the Royal Navy Halcyon-class “sloop minesweeper” HMS Sharpshooter (N68/J68) in September 1938, at around the time Hitler sent troops into the Sudetenland and a year before he was to send them into Poland, sparking WWII. Not a very imposing ship, some 80 years ago this week she would single-handedly send a Jerry U-boat to the bottom of the Barents Sea.

Based on the Grimsby-class sloops-of-war– a baker’s dozen 1,500-ton, 266-foot slow-moving (16 knots) sub chasers built in the early 1930s and capable of hauling almost 100 depth charges along with some light guns– the 21-unit Halcyon-class were slightly smaller, running 245-feet overall, and logically lighter at 1,400-tons. Outfitted with two QF MK V 4″/45 singles and a smattering of machine guns (both .50 cal Vickers and .303 Lewis guns), they shipped with manual sweep gear rather than ASW equipment.

The first five Halcyons (ordered 1933-35) were fitted with forced lubricating compound engines, and the next two with reciprocating steam (VTE) engines, while the latter 14 (ordered 1936-37 as Europe was ramping up for war) used Parsons steam turbines, with all versions being able to hit at least 16.5 knot-ish while the latter upgrades able to touch 17. All were named for Great War-era destroyers or minesweepers. 

Our little sweeper, Sharpshooter, was of the latter “turbine” type and was laid down at HM Dockyard Devonport on 8 June 1936, the fifth (and as of 2022, the last) RN warship to carry the name dating back to a 12-gun Archer-class gunbrig of the Napoleonic era. Commissioned 17 December 1937 with pennant N68, this later shifted to J68.

Assigned to the 1st Minesweeping Flotilla based at Portland (soon shifting to Scapa) her pre-war service included searching for the lost T-class submarine HMS Thetis (N25), which sank during sea trials in Liverpool Bay in the summer of 1939.

War!

Once the war began (see U-boat.net and Halcyon-class.co.uk for an extensive chronicle of her WWII service) Sharpshooter worked mine sweeping assignments in the North Sea and off Scotland, then in November transferred to Stornoway for Atlantic convoy escort duties with her Flotilla, then transferred to the 6th MS Flotilla in April 1940.

The seven sweepers of the 6th MSF, Sharpshooter included, moved to the Dover area in May, where, in response to the Blitzkrieg of the Lowlands, conducted sweeps of the coastal shipping routes off Holland. Often under German air attack on this detail, two units of the Flotilla (sisterships Hussar and Harrier) were damaged by Luftwaffe bombs before the month was up.

Called close to the beaches of Dunkirk on 28 May to help pull off members of the BEF desperate to escape the Fall of France, Sharpshooter arrived off the beaches at 0115 on 29 May and began putting boats in the water to fight the inshore surf and remove men directly from the sand—after all, she and her sisters could float in just 9-feet of water.

Dunkirk 26-29 May 1940 British troops line up on the beach at Dunkirk to await evacuation IWM

By noon on the 29th, she landed 100 soggy but safe soldiers at Dover.

On the 30th, she disembarked 273 troops at Dover, then, headed back to the beaches late that night, had a collision with the French steamer St. Helier which was pulling off French troops. This forced her to be towed back to Dover sans any more Tommys, facing a repair that would put her out of the war until mid-September.

Sharpshooter finished 1940 based at Scapa conducting fleet minesweeping/route clearance duties.

In January 1941, she was part of the sweeping screen to the north of Rockall for the battleship HMS King George V, which was taking Lord Halifax across the Atlantic to his post as the new British Ambassador at Washington.

LORD HALIFAX LEAVES FOR THE USA IN HMS KING GEORGE V TO TAKE UP HIS POST AS AMBASSADOR. JANUARY 1941. (A 2702) Two Minesweepers at a northern base. HMS SHARPSHOOTER is on the left. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205137059

Following that, Sharpshooter became a facet on North Atlantic convoy work, clocking on with HX 125, OB 334, PQ 8, PQ 9/10, PQ 12, PQ 13, QP 8, QP 9, PQ 18, QP 14, and QP 15 across 1941 and 1942, alternating with minesweeping operations in North Russian waters and off Allied-occupied Iceland. This duty usually consisted of riding shotgun on slow-moving Russia-bound convoys from Reykjavik to Murmansk/Archangel and back, being targets in the massive Barents Sea shooting gallery off German-occupied Norway which meant deadly threats from shore-based bombers, U-boats, and the bulk of the Kriegsmarine’s surface assets.

This brings us to Sharpshooter’s encounter with the Type VIIC submarine U-655 (KrvKpt. Adolf Dumrese) of Wolfpack Ziethen. Our minesweeper, part of Convoy QP 9 on a return run from Murmansk to Reykjavik, spotted Dumrese’s surfaced U-boat at very close range on the morning of 24 March 1942 south-east of Bear Island– and promptly rammed it.

U-655 turned over and sank without survivors while the minesweeper suffered no losses.

This required Sharpshooter to return to the dockyard for 10 weeks of repairs to her bow and post refit trials. Meanwhile, her skipper, LCDR David Lampen received the DSO on 25 August “awarded for skill and coolness in successful actions against enemy submarines while serving in HMS Sharpshooter.”

By April 1943, Sharpshooter was dispatched to the Mediterranean for minesweeping off the North African coast then, as summer went on, for the Operation Husky Sicily landings. She remained in the Med through most of 1944, where she reportedly suffered a partial (?) torpedo hit in April.

Arriving back in the UK in September 1944, she conducted sweeping off the coast of France and Belgium before switching to North Sea operations into early 1945.

A second career

With no shortage of minesweepers and proper sloops, and the war in Europe over, the Admiralty in April 1945 made the call to disarm Sharpshooter (along with her sister ships HMS Seagull, Franklin, and Scott) then convert them to survey ships. 

The 1946 Jane’s listing for the Halcyon class survey ship conversions, including HMS Sharpshooter

Sharpshooter emerged with a white scheme in May 1946 and was soon dispatched for hydrographic duties in the shipwreck-plagued South Pacific, based in Singapore, later picking up the auxiliary pennant A310.

Returning to the UK in December 1948, she spent the next several years on surveys of the Home Islands’ West coast and, just in time for the 1953 Coronation Review, was renamed HMS Shackleton after the famed British explorer. She and her two sisters located and logged many war-time wrecks while re-surveying coastal Great Britain.

A familiar sight from Portsmouth to the Irish Sea, Sharpshooter/Shackleton was reduced to reserve status in 1961 and laid up at Devonport.

On the disposal list in 1965, she was sold to BISCO on 3 November for breaking up at Troon by the West of Scotland Shipbreaking Co. Ltd.

Epilogue

The Halcyons suffered terribly during WWII. Sphinx, Skipjack, Gossamer, Niger, Leda, Bramble, Hebe, Hussar, and Britomart were all sunk in enemy (or blue-on-blue) action off Iceland, Dunkirk, Normandy, the Barents Sea, and in Russia’s Kola Bay– all the same waters where Sharpshooter narrowly avoided destruction herself.

As peace settled into a frigid Cold War, these slow and well-worn sweeper sloops were not needed, and most were immediately laid up.

Just four Halcyons were listed as active in the 1946 edition of Jane’s, the rest lost during the war or converted to survey ships.

The Royal Navy sold almost all of Sharpshooter/Shackleton’s remaining sisters by the mid-1950s. The only outlier to this was HMS Scott, which had likewise been tasked with survey work, and was sold for scrap in 1965 along with Sharpshooter.

Sharpshooter, her name not since reused by the Admiralty, is at least remembered by a Displate.

While Shackleton, his name recently very much in the news, gets much more attention and maritime art exists of Sharpshooter in this post-war survey guise.

Specs: 

Displacement: 815 long tons std; 1,394 tons, full load
Length 245 ft 3 in
Beam 33 ft 6 in
Draught 9 ft
Propulsion: Two Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers, two Parsons steam turbines, 1770 shp, two shafts
Speed 17 knots
Range 7,200 nmi at 10 knots on 264 tons oil
Sensors (1944): Type 123 ASDIC, Type 271 RDF
Complement: 80
Armament:


(1938)
2 x QF 4 in Mk. V guns, single mounts HA Mk.III
One quad QF 0.5 in Mk.III Vickers machine gun, HA Mk. I
Assorted .303 Lewis guns


(1944)
1 x QF 4 in Mk.V guns, single mounts HA Mk.III
2 x 2 and 2 x 1 20mm/80 Oerlikon AAA cannons
Depth charges– two double depth charge chutes with two depth charges each, two single chutes with one depth charge each, and two throwers with 40 depth charges.

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Dazzle Camo, Haze Grey, and Racing Stripes in Polynesian Waters

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The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) returned to Alameda Saturday after completing a 97-day Operation Blue Pacific Patrol in the South Pacific.

Built at Pascagoula, the 4,500-ton Stratton is the USCG’s the third Legend-class National Security Cutter

While underway on the 20,348-mile patrol, Stratton’s crew worked with Pacific nations, including Fiji, France, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Australia “on an array of missions and prioritized combating Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated fishing on the high seas or in partner nations’ exclusive economic zones,” including boarding 11 vessels and issuing 21 violations to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing– often with bilateral shipriders aboard from small Pacific island nations, a strong warning to China’s little blue men fleet of far-reaching trawlers that haunt such areas.

Among interesting facets of the patrol was the fact that Stratton’s crew used small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (contract Scan Eagle) to increase the ship’s capabilities and further extend the cutter’s patrol area.

“Stratton’s capacity for employing cutting edge technology like sUAS, gives the Coast Guard the upper hand in the fight against IUU fishing,” said CDR Charter Tschirgi, Stratton’s executive officer. “The vast area covered during patrols like these displays the reach the Coast Guard has and the length we will go to assist our partners in the Pacific.”

In another interesting evolution, while on patrol, Stratton’s crew participated in multiple joint exercises with the British River-class OPV HMS Spey (P234), the Aegis-class destroyer USS Sampson (DDG-102), fueling-at-sea with New Zealand’s replenishment vessel HMNZS Aotearoa, and joint steaming with the French Naval vessel Arago and Fijian patrol vessel Savenaca.

220130-N-CD319-1014 SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN (Jan. 30, 2022) The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson (DDG 102) participates in Divisional Tactics (DIVTAC) formations with U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) and British Royal Navy ship HMS Spey (P 234). (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Tristan Cookson)

This included Stratton and Spey steaming in formation for ten days from Hawaii to Tahiti, something you don’t see every day.

Of note, HMS Tamar (P233) and sistership Spey, outfitted with their new/old North Atlantic Dazzle camo look, are the first “permanent” Royal Navy deployment to the Indo-Pacific region in a generation, operating out of Singapore. The last Pacific Station operated by the RN was the old Commodore-in-Charge, Hong Kong, which had three Peacock-class patrol corvettes assigned, and was shuttered in 1997. 

60 Years Ago: That time a Bear Bailed out of a Bomber– at Mach 1

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The Convair B-58 Hustler was one of the sexiest bombers ever constructed and I’ll fight you on that.

I mean just look at it!

Some 96 feet long from tip-to-tip, it was powered by a quartet of GE J79 engines– the same used on the twin-engine F-4 Phantom. With some 60,000 lbf of thrust with afterburners lit, the Hustler could touch Mach 2 for short periods and could carry four B43 or B61 nuclear bombs to a combat radius of 1,740nm, with a ceiling approaching 70,000 feet.

In a fix to the problem of having its crew bail out at such high speeds and altitude, the Hustler used clamshell ejection capsules, thus: 

To make sure the capsules worked, they were tested with live chimps and bears, with the latter, a 108-pound female black bear named Yogi, being shot out of a B-58 at 35,000 feet while going Mach 1.3, some 60 years ago this week.

Yogi landed eight minutes later with relatively minor injuries, i.e. a nose bleed and some bruising.

Keep in mind the only previous supersonic ejection on file at the time was that of an F-100 Super Saber pilot, test pilot George Smith, who left his aircraft in 1955 while it was going Mach 1.05 and spent the next five days in a coma.

Happy 100 For U.S. Navy Carrier Air and what it Brings

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While the Centennial of U.S. Naval Aviation — traditionally recognized as the moment Eugene B. Ely’s Curtiss pusher lifted off from USS Birmingham (Scout Cruiser # 2) in 1910– is a historic milestone that was passed over a decade ago, we are now in the Centennial of United States Navy Aircraft Carriers.

On 20 March 1922, following a two-year conversion at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, the former USS Jupiter (Navy Fleet Collier No. 3) was recommissioned as the United States Navy’s first aircraft carrier USS Langley (CV 1). 

1931 Jane’s, showing a plan for the carrier Langley

Named in honor of Samuel Pierpont Langley, an American aircraft pioneer, and engineer, “The Covered Wagon” started as an experimental platform but was quickly proven an invaluable weapons system that changed how the U.S. Navy fought at sea.

As noted by the Navy:

In the nearly 100 years since, from CV 1 to CVN 78, aircraft carriers have been the Navy’s preeminent power projection platform and have served the nation’s interest in times of war and peace. With an unequaled ability to provide warfighting capabilities across the full spectrum of conflict, and to adapt in an ever-changing world, aircraft carriers, their air wings, and associated strike groups are the foundation of US maritime strategy.

SECNAV Carlos Del Toro’s official message celebrating 100 years of U.S. Navy Carrier Aviation.

About those big decks…

Today, the U.S. Navy has more big deck flattops than any other fleet in the world– a title it has held since about 1943 or so without exception– including 10 beautiful Nimitz-class supercarriers (all of which have conducted combat operations) plus one Gerald R. Ford-class carrier in commission (and finally nearing her first deployment) and two more Fords building.

It is expected the Fords will replace the Nimitz class on a one-per-one basis. Of the current 10, five are in PIA, DPIA, or RCOH phases of deep maintenance, leaving just five capable of deployment. Still, even with half these big carriers tied down, the five large-deck CVNs on tap are capable of more combat sorties than every other non-U.S. flattop currently afloat combined.

For reference, check out this great series of top-down shots by MC3 Bela Chambers of the eighth Nimitz-class supercarrier USS Harry S Truman (CVN-75), the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (R 91), and the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (C 550) transiting the Ionian Sea during recent NATO tri-carrier operations.

Commissioned in 1998, HST, like her sisters, is over 100,000-tons full load and is capable of carrying 90 fixed and rotary-wing aircraft. Currently embarked with CVW-1 aboard, you can see her deck filled with over 30 F-18E/Fs from VFA-11 (Red Rippers), VFA-211 (Fighting Checkmates), VFA-34 (Blue Blasters), VFA-81 (Sunliners), and EA-18Gs of VAQ-137 (Rooks) along with MH-60S/Rs of HSC-11 (Dragonslayers) and HMS-72 (Proud Warriors) and E-2D “Advanced” Hawkeyes of VAW-126 (Seahawks). The current wing is deployed with 46 F-18E/F, 5 EA-18G, 5 E-2Ds, 8 MH-60Ss and 11 MH-60Rs. Once an F-35C squadron gets integrated with CVW-1, replacing one of the Rhino units, it makes all sorts of other changes. Add to this MQ-25 Stingray drone refuelers and you see big things on the horizon.

For comparison, Charles de Gaulle, commissioned in 2001, is the only nuclear-powered carrier not operated by the U.S. Navy. At 42,000 tons she is smaller than the conventionally-powered Chinese carriers or the new Royal Navy QE2 class vessels, but the French have been operating her for two decades (off and on), including combat operations, and she is probably at this point the most capable foreign carrier afloat. However, she typically deploys with only around 30 aircraft, including the navalised Dassault Rafale (M model), American-built E-2C Hawkeyes, and a mix of a half-dozen light and medium helicopters. Her current “Clemenceau 22” deployment includes just 20 F3R Rafales of 12F and 17F.

The newest of the three vessels seen here, is the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (C 550), commissioned in 2008. Some 30,000-tons full load, she was built with lessons learned by the Italians after operating their much smaller (14,000-ton) “Harrier Carrier” Giuseppe Garibaldi, which joined the Marina Militare in 1985. Whereas Garibaldi was able to carry up to 18 aircraft, a mix of helicopters and Harriers, Cavour was designed for STOVL fixed-wing use with 10 F-35Bs (which Italy is slowly fielding) and a dozen big Agusta AW101 (Merlins). She is seen above with a quartet of aging Italian AV-8Bs, which explains why Garibaldi, currently in Norway on a NATO exercise there, is there sans Harriers.

It should be noted that, when talking about smaller but capable carriers such as Charles de Gaulle and Cavour, the U.S. Navy also has a fleet of “non-carriers” that can clock in for such power projection as well.

Further, there are seven remaining Wasp-class and two America-class amphibious assault ships, which can be used as a light carrier of sorts, filled with up to 20 AV-8Bs or F-35Bs (after updates), with the latter concept termed a “Lightning Carrier.” A slow vessel, these ‘phibs are not main battle force ships, and they cannot generate triple digits of sorties per day, but they are a powerful force multiplier, especially if they free up a big deck carrier for heavier work. While not as beefy or well-rounded an airwing as a Nimitz or (hopefully) Ford-class supercarrier, these LHD/LHA sea control ships can provide a lot of projection if needed– providing there are enough F-35Bs to fill their decks.

Thirteen U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 122, Marine Aircraft Group 13, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW), are staged aboard the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6) as part of routine training in the eastern Pacific, Oct. 8, 2019. (U.S. Marine Corps photo illustration by Lance Cpl. Juan Anaya)

Speaking of which, USS Tripoli (LHA-7), is set to fully test the Lightning Carrier concept next month, drawing 20 F-35Bs from VMX-1, VMFA-211, and VMFA-225. 

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