Photo: The USS Nimitz passing under the Golden Gate bridge May 27, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Aircraft Carriers.Tags: Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay, USS Nimitz
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The following pictures were taken, more or less at the same time, few hours ago.
They show the USS Nimitz passing under Golden Gate bridge and entering the Bay to attend the Festival in San Francisco for 75th anniversary of the bridge, from two different points of view: the first, was taken from the shoreline of the San Francisco Bay, by a photographer who uploaded it to Flickr; the second was taken on board the flattop as it sailed under the brigde with the personnel lined up on the flight deck, and posted to the aircraft carrier’s Facebook page.
The aircraft carrier has just completed carrier qualifications off the southern coast of California and no CVW-11 plane is on board.
Image credit: Steve Rhodes
Image credit: USS Nimitz Facebook page
Thanks to the Internet and Social Media, we can follow some events as they happen.
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Photo: These could be the only F-22 stealth planes not choking their pilots May 16, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Aircraft Carriers, Military Aviation.Tags: F-22, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, United States Navy, USS Carl Vinson
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Just posted by U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet on their Flickr photostream, the following image shows the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) as it arrives at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH) for its final port visit in Hawaii before returning to its homeport in San Diego following a six-month WestPac (Western Pacific) and OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom) cruise.
Don’t blame me for the following comment, but as soon as I saw the photograph, I could not help but notice that those depicted in the photo could be the only F-22 stealth planes not choking their pilots.
Indeed, in spite of the recurrent hypoxia symptoms experienced by several Air Force pilots, some of whom have refused to fly the Raptor until the flaw continues, the Pentagon has not grounded the F-22 fleet, unlike the USAF that banned flight operations with the 5th generation fighter last year.
Lockheed Martin’s troubled plane will be only restricted to fly near a “proximate landing location” in order to give pilots the possibility to land quickly if their planes’ On Board Oxygen Generating System (OBOGS) fail.
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Dustin W. Sisco
Related articles
- Defense Chief Restricts Stealth Jet Till It Stops Choking Pilots (wired.com)
- Whistleblower pilots who did not want to fly the F-22 now ready to resume flying the Raptor! (theaviationist.com)
- 482 such planes have crashed in 30 years. There is someone risking a lot more than F-22 pilots. (theaviationist.com)
Video: Naval aviation-style airborne change of command (hardcore F-18 Hornet porn) May 11, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Aircraft Carriers, Military Aviation.Tags: United States Navy, USS Enterprise, Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Naval Air Station Oceana, VFA-211, Strike Fighter Squadron
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The following video is the 1,200th one uploaded by the U.S. Navy on Youtube. It shows, from the inside, the VFA-211 airborne change of command that took place while the “Fighting Checkmates” Strike Fighter Squadron is currently deployed with the USS Enterprise in the 5th Fleet area of operation.
VF-211 was redesignated Strike Fighter Squadron 211 (VFA) after successfully completing the transition to the F/A-18F Super Hornet (“Rhino” in naval aviation slang) in 2005 at NAS Lemoore, CA. Upon their return to NAS Oceana, it became the first operational east coast Super Hornet squadron, completing back-to-back combat deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. In early 2008, the squadron received the first Block II Super Hornet, equipped with APG-79 radar, the most advanced version of the Rhino.
Feel the adrenaline as the video brings you on an F/A-18F backseat for a cat launch, few flybys on the aircraft carrier, visual pattern before an arrested landing.
Enjoy!
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Near miss as Britain’s biggest warship squeezes through Thames Barrier to attend the Olympic Guard exercise May 7, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Aircraft Carriers.Tags: HMS Ocean, London, Olympic Games, RAF Northolt, River Thames, Royal Navy
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Along with the Typhoon on QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) at RAF Northolt, west London, the Olympic Guard exercise, whose goal is to test the security plan aimed to prevent a 9/11 type of attack during this summer’s Olympics, saw also the participation of the HMS Ocean amphibious assault ship.
In fact, while several other assets will be enforcing the No-Fly Zone, and a few SAM (Surface to Air Missile) batteries will track suspect planes from the roof of some residential buildings, Britain’s biggest warship, will be docked at Greenwich as a precaution against any potential terrorist attacks.
Therefore, on May 4, the helicopter carrier made its way up the River Thames with eight Lynx choppers belonging to both the Royal Navy and Army on board.
However, the journey up the river of the 21,500-tonne ship was made particularly difficult by the 61-mt gaps in the moveable flood barriers lying downstream on the Thames. In fact, as the 35-mt wide ship approached the barrier, the wind pushed it towards one of the 20-mt tall steel gates.
With the help of three tugboats, the helicopter carrier was able to safely sail through the narrow gap but the near miss fueled criticism for the “over the top” exercise put in place by the UK’s MoD for the Olympics Games.
Especially since no specific threats have been made to the Games.
Image credit: AFP PHOTO/ BEN STANSALL
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UK to reverse decision on F-35 version. Two aircraft carriers and 72 retired Harriers later. April 18, 2012
Posted by Richard Clements in Aircraft Carriers, F-35.Tags: Lockheed Martin, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, STOVL, F-35B, F-35C, Strategic Defence and Security Review, HMS Ark Royal, Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, David Cameron, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
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After the first of the UK’s F-35s took to the air on Apr. 13, it would seem that British Prime Minister David Cameron has been persuaded into going back with the STOVL (Short Take Off Vertical Landing) version and reverse his earlier decision to reverse order from the F-35B the F-35C CV (Carrier Variant).
The British newspaper The Daily Mail has reported that Cameron has taken on board military advice and gone with the B version that was controversially axed in 2010 as the British government, following a Strategic Defence and Security Review, negotiated a deal to get the JSF that will equip the American flattops instead of that destined for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Cameron made the U-turn after hearing that the changes needed by the two carriers would amount to £1.8 billion and delay the whole project by 7 years.
The Daily Mail quoted a Downing street official as saying: “The major problem with the conventional aircraft [the CV variant] is that we would be without carrier capability for far too long”.
Obviously, such uncertainity gives us more ammunition to criticise the initial decision to scrap the two small aircraft carriers HMS Ark Royal and HMS Invincible (leaving the UK with no maritime strike capability for a decade or more), the subsequent retirement of the Harrier “Jump Jet” and last year’s sale of the RAF’s 72 Harrier jets to the USMC for a mere 180 million USD.
The (final?) decision is expected to be signed off officially within the next few weeks.
In the meanwhile Lockheed Martin has released a video of the UK’s F-35B inaugural flight.
The one in the video should be UK future’s F-35 version. Until next U-turn on future Britain’s aircraft carrier and naval aviation.
Richard Clements for TheAviationist.com
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Hand Signals: the next step to controlling UAVs on aircraft carriers April 4, 2012
Posted by Richard Clements in Aircraft Carriers, Drones.Tags: aircraft carrier, drones, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Northrop Grumman, Office of Naval Research, UAV, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Unmanned Air Vehicle, USS Dwight D Eisenhower, X-47B
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The environment you find on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier is constantly monitored. The organized chaos of launches, recoveries and taxi takes place in a totally unforgiving environment for an unmanned aircraft (and for manned planes too…).
According to an interesting article published by Navy Times, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) took a very close look at the problem of moving UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) about the deck whilst not endangering crew or interfering to the normal operations and they came up with an ingenious camera and computer that recognises the hand signals the sailors use to guide aircraft about an aircraft carrier deck.
It may be a step that finally makes UAV use on a aircraft carrier possible. “It would be really nice if we had an unmanned vehicle that can understand human gestures” said Yale Song a Ph.D candidate at MIT who developed the system.
“Gesturing is an instinctive skill we all have, so it requires little or no thought, leaving the focus itself, as it should be, not the interaction modality” said Song.
Song’s project which began in January 2009, and was funded by the Office of Naval Research, took him to Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, where he learned the hand signals used by the sailors on the flight deck that he used to “train” 20 students 24 signals. The students wore a Yellow Turtleneck and a cranial to replicate the clothing used onboard carriers.
The students performed all of the signals whilst being filmed by Song’s camera/computer combination, which in turn translated their hand movements to stick figures. With this data, Song was able to develop an algorithm that is able to learn how to identify and recognize the signals from people it hadn’t met before therefore hadn’t learned their individual slight variables.
Song said “Based on that training data, we trained our model so that when new data comes in, it has our algorithm to classify the sequence of gestures.”
Song admitted that his system gets the gestures correct around 75 percent of the time, so obviously a lot of more research is needed before this system could be introduced onto an unmanned air system.
According to the Navy Times article, while Song and MIT look into recognizing hand signals, Northrop Grumman has developed a special remote control for moving the X-47B on flight decks by means of a device which attaches to the wrist, waist and one hand. The “yellow shirt” operating the device will have access to a display and will be able to control the aircraft’s throttle, tailhook, brakes and perform several other functions associated with maneuvring an aircraft on deck.
Image credit: U.S. Naval Air Systems Command
Anyway, drone operations automation has already reached aircraft carriers, at least for testing purposes.
An automated landing system, which allowed the X-47’s controllers to take control of an F-18, fly the approach and land the plane onto the flight deck of USS Dwight D Eisenhower whilst the Hornet’s crew makes no input into the plane’s flight, has already been tested. Seen from the outside, the landing looks totally normal. The LSOs still has the power to wave off the landing should they feel that the landing is unsafe or does not meet any other criteria required for a trap landing.
Richard Clements for TheAviationist.com
Photo: Iranian maritime patrol aircraft buzzes the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz February 29, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Aircraft Carriers, Iran.Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Carrier Strike Group, Fokker 27, Iran, Iranian navy, Persian Gulf
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“Tower this is Ghost Rider requesting a flyby”
“Negative Ghost Rider, pattern is full”
Many of you remember this memorable quotes from Top Gun movie. Imagine the same request radioed by an Iranian maritime patrol aircraft to the Air Boss of USS Abraham Lincoln, as the American supercarrier sailed through the Strait of Hormuz.
Obviously, the Iranian Fokker 27 that you can see in the following screenshots (from a BBC Persian footage) did not request any permission to buzz the “Island” of the flattop and was closely monitored from many miles away. Nevertheless they are interesting as they show a close encounter that is quite common in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere.
Iranian Navy Fokker F27s have already performed low passes on other aircraft carriers in the past. Since they are turboprop reconnaissance planes they don’t pose a real threat to the Strike Group that doesn’t need to take any defensive action other than tracking the surveillance plane all time.
Aircraft carriers don’t even need to change their course if a spyplane pops up on the radar, provided that it is not armed and it doesn’t show an aggressive behaviour.
Something different happens if a more threatening formation approaches the supercarrier. For instance, when two Russian Tu-95s buzzed the USS Nimitz in the Pacific, the carrier launched some F-18s to intercept and escort the “intruders”.
Not only planes pay visit to the Carrier Strike Group in the Gulf: Iranian speedboats can be seen in the following screenshot, in close proximity of the Lincoln and accompanying ships.
Related articles
- U.S. Fifth Fleet vs Iran Navy update: American supercarrier monitored with…binoculars. (theaviationist.com)
- “U.S. supercarrier detected by an Iranian spyplane near the Strait of Hormuz”. Trivial as that could be the last thing that plane will ever detect. (theaviationist.com)
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Old Harriers and new choppers unleashed. Welcome aboard the Cavour aircraft carrier during “blue water ops”. January 27, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Aircraft Carriers.Tags: AW-101, Caio Duilio, Cavour, F-35, Italian aircraft carrier Cavour (550), Italian Navy, Joint Strike Fighter, Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, Marina Militare, McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II, NH-90, STOVL
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On Jan. 25, along with the ambassadors of NATO members, EU, Middle East and Mediterranean partners, The Aviationist has had the opportunity to visit the Cavour aircraft carrier during “blue water ops” off Civitavecchia port.
The event was jointly organized by the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to showcase one of the most important assets of the Italian Defense, one of the few European aircraft carriers that is not only important for military operations, but it is also a versatile platform that made its operative debut during the Haiti relief mission.
The Cavour symbolizes “a variety of possible uses that make it cost-effective” said Adm. Luigi Binelli Mantelli, future Chief of Staff of the Italian Navy.
Along with the F-35 program, the Italian Navy flagship was recently targeted by potential budget cuts as a consequence of the country’s financial crisis. However, “the AV-8B will fly until 2020, when they will be replaced by the F-35B. The MoD Di Paola has confirmed the project will continue. We don’t know how many aircraft we will get. The Air Force will get the majority, but even the Italian Navy will receive its planes” Binelli Mantelli said.
According to the Admiral, the F-35, is mainly an Air Force project, since the service needs the plane for its future. However, the Navy has joined the program and the future STOVL (Short Take Off Vertical Landing) variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, that was removed from probation one year earlier than expected, will serve as a force multiplier and complement the capabilities of the ship, capabilities that were showed to the ambassadors, diplomats and media during a tactical event involving the AV-8B+ Harrier (both single and double seat), AW-101 and NH-90 helicopters, the San Marco Regiment special forces and the Caio Duilio, a radar-evading Anti-Air Warfare destroyer.
Giovanni Maduli took the following images for The Aviationist.
U.S. aircraft carriers face Iranian stealth subs in the Persian Gulf. And remote controlled ones too… January 19, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Aircraft Carriers, Iran.Tags: 5th Fleet, aircraft carrier, Carrier Strike Group, drone, Iran, Persian Gulf, stealth, Strait of Hormuz, submarine, Tehran, UAS, United States Navy
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Although the U.S. Navy has just rescued sailors of an Iranian boat in distress for the third time in 10 days, Tehran doesn’t seem to appreciate the aid that the American warships are giving to Iranian civilian mariners in the Persian Gulf.
In an interview with the Fars News Agency, Rear Adm. Farhad Amiri said that Iran’s ordinary submarines, covered with coatings that make them stealth, since “do not allow sound to travel through them and do not reflect waves sent by sonar systems”, could by the worst threat U.S. aircraft carriers will have to face next time they cross the Strait of Hormuz.
Since they American flattops can’t track them, Iranian submarines have acquired the ability to hide at the proper depth and “when the submarine lies on the sea bed, it can easily target an aircraft carrier that is passing nearby,” Amiri said.
Being one of the most powerful tools in the hands of the U.S., aircraft carriers are one of the most ambitious targets of any anti-American country. That’s why they are also some of the most heavily defended assets which does not travel alone (as done by the Chinese trainer Varyag) but alongside a Strike Group (once known as Battle Group) including ships, supporting vessels and a nuclear submarine, whose task is, among the others, to defend the flattops from underwater attacks.
So, although I’m unable to determine whether the threat posed by the Iranian subs is real or not (actually unable to say whether the subs are really stealth because they don’t even exist…), I would still bet on the Carrier Strike Group. Especially considering the usual claims made by the regime in the last years.
According to Mehr News agency, in a couple of month Iran plans to launch new 500-ton submarine Fateh (Conqueror) submarine, whereas Iranian researchers have built a new 3-kg smart remote-control sub, with a submerged speed of 19 kts, capable to carry out surveillance missions for…one meter (I hope there was a problem with the translation otherwise this would remind me of the surveillance drone that resembled a radio-controlled scale model more than a modern drone).
Photo: Costa Concordia and Cavour aircraft carrier at Civitavecchia harbor January 18, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Aircraft Carriers.Tags: Cavour aircraft carrier, Civitavecchia, Costa Concordia, Costa Cruises, Cruise ship, Isola del Giglio, USS Nimitz
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In the last few days, after the Costa Concordia ran aground at Isola del Giglio on Jan. 13, media all around the world have published statistics to give readers an idea of the size of ill-fated ship.
For instance, some reported that the empty ship weighted as 110 Boeing B747s (which version?) while others said that the luxury cruise ship was slightly shorter than USS Nimitz (958ft/292 mt of the Concordia vs 1,092 ft/333 mt of the CVN-68).
In 2008, while visiting the Italian aircraft carrier Cavour, I had the opportunity to take some photographs of the Costa Concordia docked at Civitavecchia harbor next to the warship. Although they were taken from a certain distance the pictures below give an idea of the size of the cruise ship in relation to the size of the Italian Navy flagship (800ft/244 m) destined to be equipped with the F-35Bs (provided they will be able to survive the cuts of the Defense budget review).
