Tanker basing limitations posed challenge during Operation Iraqi Freedom air campaign

Sea Power, Jul 2003 by Burgess, Richard R

Rear Adm. Daniel L. Kloeppel, commander, Naval Air Force Reserve, praised the performance of Naval Air Reserve squadrons in Operations Enduring Freedom, Northern Watch, and Iraqi Freedom. He specifically noted the carrier deployment in combat of Strike Fighter Squadron 201; the special-operations missions flown by Helicopter Combat Support Special Squadrons Four and Five; the logistics and minesweeping achievements of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadrons 14 and 15; the deployment of Electronic Attack Squadron 209 in an expeditionary role; and the deployment to the Middle East of rotating detachments of C-9, C-40, and C-130 transport aircraft.

Kloeppel also told Sea Power of an upcoming experiment involving reorganization of the patrol aviation community in the Naval Air Reserve. The reserve force now includes seven patrol squadrons (VPs), each equipped with P-3C Orion aircraft. Later this year, VP-62 at Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville will be reduced to four aircraft and operate in the manner of a master augmentation unit (MAU), two of which were operational in the 1980s (but were disestablished in the early 1990s). The experiment calls for VP-62 to train nine crews, three for each of the three active-duty VP squadrons based in Jacksonville. These crews, organized as squadron augmentation units (SAUs), will deploy overseas with the active-duty squadrons to which they are assigned for their reserve two-week active-duty training cy-cles, and upon return continue to train with the MAU.

If the experiment is successful, the same concept is likely to be implemented to support the three other active-duty VP bases in the United States: in Brunswick, Maine; at Whidbey Island, Wash.; and in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. Kloeppel said that the Naval Air Force Reserve is likely to retain two full squadrons (VP-64 and VP-66) at NAS Willow Grove Joint Reserve Base in Pennsylvania, which he said will be maintained as a "center of ASW excellence" for the Naval Air Force Reserve. VP-64 and VP-66 are being equipped with the BMUP (Baseline Modification Update Program) version of the P-3C.

Return of the Seaplane?

Vice Adm. Joseph Dyer, commander of the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), stressed the need to reduce the buildup time required in planning for a campaign. "What we are going to do is improve logistics," he said. Dyer said that NAVAIR is seriously considering ways to use seaplanes, airships, and wing-in-ground effect (WIG) craft to move large numbers of personnel and large quantities of supplies more rapidly and efficiently.

"Every lake is an airfield," Dyer said. "We think it is time to look at seaplanes." He mentioned, as a potential seaplane, something like a "C-130 on floats."

The Navy retired its last flying boats in 1967 and its last amphibians in 1975. During the 1950s the Navy experimented with the R3Y Tradewind flying boat, which could approach a beach and unload troops and vehicles through a bow ramp.

Dyer said that one WIG concept under consideration is a craft with a plane form similar to that of the Royal Air Force Vulcan bomber of the 1950s-a blended wing/body. The WIG could be used to transport stockpiles of ordnance to the area of operations.