Recap of 100th annviversary of Naval Aviation and Patrol Aviation celebration

[(1VB) Mustang]

Greetings fellow Patrol Squadron Four members.

I just came back from the Centennial celebration of Naval Aviation and
especially observing Patrol Aviation in Jacksonville, Florida. It was
April 4-6, 2011. I’m going to recap for you the briefing we received
on Wednesday from Rear Admiral Michael Hewitt, Commander Patrol and
Recon. Force. He welcomed us to the event. We then listened to a
simulated briefing for a crew to fly against a Chinese Yuan class sub.
The sub is a diesel-electric boat. It was first built in 2004. The
speed of the sub is 20 kts. It has 6 torpedo tubes and can fire anti-
ship missiles. The op area for this event is East of Taiwan.

The briefing was then turned over to Commodore Tray Wheeler, CPW 11 in
Jax. The breakdown of the Patrol Aviation community starts with ADM
Hewitt as the Commander of the force. Under him are CPW 2, CPW 10 and
CPW 11. Now there is an ADM commanding the op areas. Under that ADM
are CTF 57, CTF 72 and CTF
67.

At one point there were 450 P-3’s and now we are down to
approximately 85 mission capable aircraft. A couple of years ago
there were issues with the wings and some planes were “red striped”,
in other words hard down. The fleet got down to 49 aircraft. The
planes are owned by the squadrons, but they are sharing their planes
between squadrons. Sometimes they might leave a plane on deployment
for the next squadron. Presently there are 2 reserve squadrons left.
They own their planes, but also share. There are 18 squadrons with
7273 sailors: 1346 officers and 5927 enlisted.

Commodore Dave Cutter from wing 2 spoke next. VP-4 is very busy with
the Chinese Navy and also providing relief in Japan. Other squadrons
in Kaneohe are VP-9 and VP-47. Plus there is VPU-2. There is an ASWOC
located in San Diego to assist squadrons working with the fleet.
There has been a BAMS-D (Demonstrator) working in the Pacific for
awhile now. This is a Global Hawk UAV with maritime sensors= cameras,
radar, and comm. gear for the Navy. It operates at 60,000 ft and has
an endurance of over 20+ hours. The pilots fly it from the “desert”
and the tacco and sensor operators are in Pax. River. Usually there
are 3 different crews on duty during these long missions.

Commodore Pete Garvin from wing 10 spoke next. The squadrons at
Whidbey Is. are VP-1, VP-40, VP-46, and VP-69. Also there is VQ 1&2.
VQ is deployed 365 days a year to Bahrain, Kadena, Sigonella Sicily,
and Turkey.

Commodore Wheeler then spoke again. He said he had VP-5, VP-8, VP-10,
VP-16, VP-26, VP-45, and VP-62, plus the special ops squadron VPU-1 in
Jax. VP squadrons 8, 10 and 26 were at Brunswick before it closed.

There are 24 different variations of the P-3 today. One version is the
AIP. The improvements are: Radar, SAR (overland surveillance and radar
images), ISAR (maritime surface detection images). Electro Optics/
Infrared, ESM, Color Displays and Weapons- SLAM ER and Maverick. The
VP-5 crew that fired the Maverick off Libya had a LTJG TACCO and the
PPC was on his first flight. They said they hope to de-classify the
video so we could see it someday. Presently VP-4 is in Kadena and
Misawa. VP-5 is in Sigonella Sicily, Djibouti, and El Salvador (drug
ops). VP-8 is currently in Bahrain and Qatar. The primary mission of
the P-3 is still ASW. China has 66 submarines and the U.S. has 70
submarines. China has top of the line equipment and the subs are
quiet.

If there is a piracy event, the Navy’s interaction will have a P-3
overhead. In drug interdiction the bad guys have tried using semi-
submersible and fully submersible subs to get drugs to the U.S. The
Russians are still operating. They don’t have a big presence like
before, but they are out there. The Chinese are now considered a Blue
Water Navy. They are operating beyond the “first chain of islands”.
That would be from Taiwan to Okinawa to Japan and East of that line.

The project manager of the P-8 spoke next. The Navy is buying 117
aircraft. It is a Boeing 737-800 with a -900 wing. It will weigh
187,700 lbs. It will cruise at 490 kts and max alt is 41,000 ft. Its
range is 4000 miles or 1200 miles with 4 hrs on station. It has in-
flight refueling capacity. The P-8 is fuel efficient at 10,000 ft, but
not so good at low altitudes. There is technology to launch sonos at
10,000 ft to hit a lat/long position. The flight time is limited to
17 hrs due to the engine oil. It will have 9 crewmembers= 2 pilots, 2
nfo’s and 3 aw’s. Plus there are 2 observer positions. There are 5
stations in the back, and all capable of inter-mixing these positions
(tacco in the middle or at the ends). The plane is capable of carrying
20 total pax. It can carry 5 MK 54 torpedoes in the bomb-bay behind
the wings. There are 4 wing stations. It can carry 76 sonobuoys. They
will be launched from 3 cylinders. They will be reloaded from the sono
racks in flt. The cabin will remain pressurized. There is no MAD on
this plane, to much metal interference. There might be an expendable
drone the size of a buoy and be shot out of the plane and then fly a
mad trapping pattern. This might happen in 2016. There are dual nav.
systems. INS and also celestial info could be fed into the nav system.
The plane will come on line in 2013 and one Jax squadron will be the
first. It has early warning self-protection and electric support
measures. The plane that was at the event was the 3rd (T-3) built.
There are 6 planes in flight testing. The first production plane for
the Navy is in Renton, WA going through the production line. There
will be 6 aircraft and 12 crews in the P-8’s squadron.



The events for the 3 days were; on day 1 there was a tour of the P-3
simulators, the new hanger which will house the current squadrons and
future P-8’s. They can fit 10 P-3’s in the hanger. Then in the
afternoon was the fly-by. There was vintage aircraft; stearman and
TBM. Then there was a T34C, C-12, and T44C. Then came 3 P-3’s. The
first was painted in WW II PBY markings. The next 2 were in the white
and black colors. Then the highlight was the arrival of the P-8.
Unfortunately the PBY was not able to attend (maint. issues). They
looked into bringing in a fire bomber P-2, but they wanted a lot of
money and it exceeded the budget of the planners for this event. On
Tues night was the heritage dinner. Vice Admiral Al Myers, Commander
of Naval Air Force (Air Boss) was the guest speaker. There were 17
Admirals in attendance. The 3 P-3’s the P-8 and the BAMS were parked
outside the hanger for viewing. Then we had the induction of the first
group into the Patrol Aviation Hall of Fame. One familiar name is Jay
Beasley, “Mr. P-3”. ADM Hewitt said he would like to make this an
annual event. On Wed morning we had the briefing from ADM Hewitt and
the Commodores. In the afternoon, we attended the re-dedication of
the PBY on the base. It took 2 years to restore the plane. There were
4 crewmembers from WW II who were on the PBY present at the
dedication.

I have posted the pictures I took and you can view them at
http://patrolaviationjaxapril2011.shutterfly.com I am attempting to
do the same with my video, but am having difficulty getting it to the
shutter fly site. That will be under http://patrolvideojax2011.shutterfly.com
I hope to have it posted by next Mon. Most of the video is of the
heritage dinner and dedication of the PBY, not to mention some P-3’s
flying. I have attached a copy of the heritage dinner program. My
scanner is not working correctly, so I had it down at a store.
Unfortunately they didn’t put in the pages the same way, so they are
sideways. If you have a printer, you can print out your own copy.

It was a great time being in attendance for this event. During the
dinner, they showed a video of the early years of Naval Aviation and
then covered the Patrol Aviation era up to the present. In one scene
towards the end is a shot of CO Messegee (1975) flying, chasing a sub.
There was a copy of VP-4’s P-2 “Ruler of the Sea” print hanging right
outside the auditorium at VP-30. There were only 2 other prints on
the wall; a PBY and P3B. Being at the VP-30 hanger brought back
memories of hearing the sound of an APU, and the Allison engines
running. Not to mention the smell of JP. It was an honor being around
some our nation’s finest young people who are now carrying on the
mission of defending this great nation.

John Larson

VP-4 Vets Assn PAO