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Lockheed S-3B Viking
With the aging of the Grumman S-2 Tracker and the increasing effectiveness of Soviet submarines, the U.S. Navy issued a requirement for a new carrier-based ASW aircraft. Lockheed won the contract, partnering with LTV to design carrier-specific equipment and Univac to design the ASW suite. The resulting S-3A Viking took its first flight in January 1972 and entered the fleet in February 1974.
Unlike its predecessor, the S-2, which integrated the hunter-killer team concept into a single airframe, the S-3A Viking took a giant leap forward by completely computerizing the sub-hunting process. It integrated the entire sensor suite into one system, a feat that wasn’t possible on the S-2. This was made possible by the Univac AN/AYK-10 computer, Texas Instruments AN/APS-116 radar, and AN/ASQ-81 MAD sensor in a retractable tail boom. The S-3A Viking, flown by a crew of four, was so efficiently designed that it was hailed as the most compactly designed aircraft in history by one aviation historian.
The S-3A—nicknamed "Hoover" for the sound of its engines—acquired a reputation for being a reliable, easy-to-fly aircraft, and spawned many variants, including the US-3A carrier-onboard delivery (COD) transport aircraft and the ES-3A Shadow Elint variant. A dedicated KS-3A tanker never went into production, but S-3s were increasingly equipped with buddy refueling packs. When the KA-6D Intruder dedicated tankers were retired from the U.S. Navy in the mid-1990s, the S-3s took over the role, though its relatively slow speeds meant that it could not accompany strikes into enemy territory. Despite this, the S-3 always could carry not only antisubmarine ordnance such as torpedoes and depth charges but also bombs and later the AGM-84 Harpoon antiship missile and AGM-65 Maverick AGM. The S-3's anti-ship capabilities were used in both Gulf Wars: in 1991, an S-3 sank an Iraqi attack boat with conventional bombs, while in 2003 an S-3 destroyed an Iraqi command post with a Maverick in Basra.
Beginning in 1991, the S-3As in service were modified to S-3B standards. This involved significant upgrades to the avionics and the installation of a new APS-127V synthetic-aperture radar, which gave the S-3B a significant ship detection and SAR capability. Though the ES-3A was withdrawn from service in the mid-1990s, several S-3Bs were converted to littoral reconnaissance (Gray Wolf) and ground surveillance (Brown Boy) roles. With the reduction of submarine threats to the U.S. Navy, the S-3 fleet was being gradually retired; those remaining in service have had their ASW equipment removed and serve primarily as tankers. Their role has been largely replaced by the SH-60B/F Seahawk series, and, aside from a handful of test aircraft, the S-3 was retired from service in 2009.
However, even though the aircraft was mostly retired from military service, not all of them were grounded. At NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, one S-3B was being used daily as a flight research aircraft. It was acquired in 2004 and flown for the next 16 years on a wide variety of research missions. It was originally designed by Lockheed as an anti-submarine warfare aircraft. NASA’s S-3B Viking was completely reconfigured in 2006 for flight research purposes. All weapons systems were removed and replaced with civilian avionics, GPS, and satellite communications systems to conduct flight communications research. One of its major contributions was helping NASA’s aeronautical innovators define communications standards that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can apply to unmanned aircraft systems for safe operation in U.S. airspace.
This S-3B has conducted research flights over every terrain in the national airspace, which includes mountains, hills, bodies of water, plains, and deserts. The results of the flight research have given NASA, the FAA, and its commercial partners a path for building secure, reliable command-and-control radios used for communication from the ground to unmanned aircraft systems. NASA’s S-3B, N601NA, also flew research flights to monitor algal bloom growth in Lake Erie and developed hyperspectral imaging equipment to provide more accurate data for university scientists studying the problem. These hyperspectral imagers, mounted to the Viking’s belly, analyzed a wide spectrum of light to identify the types of harmful algal blooms in the water. This aircraft is now preserved at the Gillespie Field Annex which can be found nearby.
Lockheed S-3B Viking
With the aging of the Grumman S-2 Tracker and the increasing effectiveness of Soviet submarines, the U.S. Navy issued a requirement for a new carrier-based ASW aircraft. Lockheed won the contract, partnering with LTV to design carrier-specific equipment and Univac to design the ASW suite. The resulting S-3A Viking took its first flight in January 1972 and entered the fleet in February 1974.
Unlike its predecessor, the S-2, which integrated the hunter-killer team concept into a single airframe, the S-3A Viking took a giant leap forward by completely computerizing the sub-hunting process. It integrated the entire sensor suite into one system, a feat that wasn’t possible on the S-2. This was made possible by the Univac AN/AYK-10 computer, Texas Instruments AN/APS-116 radar, and AN/ASQ-81 MAD sensor in a retractable tail boom. The S-3A Viking, flown by a crew of four, was so efficiently designed that it was hailed as the most compactly designed aircraft in history by one aviation historian.
The S-3A—nicknamed "Hoover" for the sound of its engines—acquired a reputation for being a reliable, easy-to-fly aircraft, and spawned many variants, including the US-3A carrier-onboard delivery (COD) transport aircraft and the ES-3A Shadow Elint variant. A dedicated KS-3A tanker never went into production, but S-3s were increasingly equipped with buddy refueling packs. When the KA-6D Intruder dedicated tankers were retired from the U.S. Navy in the mid-1990s, the S-3s took over the role, though its relatively slow speeds meant that it could not accompany strikes into enemy territory. Despite this, the S-3 always could carry not only antisubmarine ordnance such as torpedoes and depth charges but also bombs and later the AGM-84 Harpoon antiship missile and AGM-65 Maverick AGM. The S-3's anti-ship capabilities were used in both Gulf Wars: in 1991, an S-3 sank an Iraqi attack boat with conventional bombs, while in 2003 an S-3 destroyed an Iraqi command post with a Maverick in Basra.
Beginning in 1991, the S-3As in service were modified to S-3B standards. This involved significant upgrades to the avionics and the installation of a new APS-127V synthetic-aperture radar, which gave the S-3B a significant ship detection and SAR capability. Though the ES-3A was withdrawn from service in the mid-1990s, several S-3Bs were converted to littoral reconnaissance (Gray Wolf) and ground surveillance (Brown Boy) roles. With the reduction of submarine threats to the U.S. Navy, the S-3 fleet was being gradually retired; those remaining in service have had their ASW equipment removed and serve primarily as tankers. Their role has been largely replaced by the SH-60B/F Seahawk series, and, aside from a handful of test aircraft, the S-3 was retired from service in 2009.
However, even though the aircraft was mostly retired from military service, not all of them were grounded. At NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, one S-3B was being used daily as a flight research aircraft. It was acquired in 2004 and flown for the next 16 years on a wide variety of research missions. It was originally designed by Lockheed as an anti-submarine warfare aircraft. NASA’s S-3B Viking was completely reconfigured in 2006 for flight research purposes. All weapons systems were removed and replaced with civilian avionics, GPS, and satellite communications systems to conduct flight communications research. One of its major contributions was helping NASA’s aeronautical innovators define communications standards that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can apply to unmanned aircraft systems for safe operation in U.S. airspace.
This S-3B has conducted research flights over every terrain in the national airspace, which includes mountains, hills, bodies of water, plains, and deserts. The results of the flight research have given NASA, the FAA, and its commercial partners a path for building secure, reliable command-and-control radios used for communication from the ground to unmanned aircraft systems. NASA’s S-3B, N601NA, also flew research flights to monitor algal bloom growth in Lake Erie and developed hyperspectral imaging equipment to provide more accurate data for university scientists studying the problem. These hyperspectral imagers, mounted to the Viking’s belly, analyzed a wide spectrum of light to identify the types of harmful algal blooms in the water. This aircraft is now preserved at the Gillespie Field Annex which can be found nearby.