The Air Plan

[[email protected]]

Once upon a time I came across an Air Plan from a USN aircraft carrier,
and there are some things I cannot understand:

Of course, mission abbreviations like DCA, SEAD, AEW, ULT or CSAR, are
quite common for people who are interested in military aviation for
some time, but could somebody, please, tell me are the following?:
- 2VX
- 4VX
(This is about F/A-18 and F-14 I've read somewhere these are
"self-escort" missions? What kind of self-defense - BVR or Sidewinders
only?)
- RED
- RED LD
(I guess it has something to do with strike missions - does LD mean
"low drag" or "laser designated"? Are 2VX/4VX and RED somehow connected
- I mean the latter are strikers and the former are escort?)
- TERF
(Concerning helos. Looks like "terrain flight" - but over the sea???)
- PG/ASR
(PG is "plane guard", but ASR?)

Another thing: do you have any idea what this black triangles in some
places of the plan mean? From what I've read, they may something with
flight deck readiness status or fueling?

It looked a bit similar for a SH-60F helo that was airborne for a whole
day - there were "filled" (black) and "empty" (white) diamonds on his
line in the Air Plan - can they mean hot refuelings or crew exchanges?

Best regards,

Jacek

[Doug \Woody\ and Erin Beal]

On 5/10/05 12:19 PM, in article
om, "
> wrote:

> Once upon a time I came across an Air Plan from a USN aircraft carrier,
> and there are some things I cannot understand:
>
> Of course, mission abbreviations like DCA, SEAD, AEW, ULT or CSAR, are
> quite common for people who are interested in military aviation for
> some time, but could somebody, please, tell me are the following?:
> - 2VX

2 "blue air" fighters versus an "unknown" number of "red" bandits.

> - 4VX

4 fighters versus unknown number of bandits.

> (This is about F/A-18 and F-14 I've read somewhere these are
> "self-escort" missions? What kind of self-defense - BVR or Sidewinders
> only?)

Self-escort strike is abbreviated SES. It's BVR. The 2vX or 4vX that
you're looking at is probably an air-to-air mission only.

> - RED

Bandits for the 2vX or 4vX

> - RED LD

Red Lead. Squadron responsible for setting and leading the bandit
presentation.

> (I guess it has something to do with strike missions - does LD mean
> "low drag" or "laser designated"? Are 2VX/4VX and RED somehow connected
> - I mean the latter are strikers and the former are escort?)
> - TERF
> (Concerning helos. Looks like "terrain flight" - but over the sea???)

Terrain following. This is done over land.

> - PG/ASR

Plane guard. ASR is Anti-surface Recce (I *think*). I never paid much
attention to that particular acronym.

> (PG is "plane guard", but ASR?)
>
> Another thing: do you have any idea what this black triangles in some
> places of the plan mean? From what I've read, they may something with
> flight deck readiness status or fueling?
>

Hot switches. Aircraft stays turning. Pilots switch out. The solid
triangles are the hot refuelings. The empty triangles should be crew
switches only.

> It looked a bit similar for a SH-60F helo that was airborne for a whole
> day - there were "filled" (black) and "empty" (white) diamonds on his
> line in the Air Plan - can they mean hot refuelings or crew exchanges?
>
> Best regards,
>
> Jacek
>

[[email protected]]

Great thanks, Woody! I've been racking my brains about that really for
a long time!

Now it becomes clear pairs from two VF/VFA squadrons acting as "Red
Air" versus pairs from two other squadrons in the role of "Blue Air"...

Jacek

[M. B.]

> Plane guard. ASR is Anti-surface Recce (I *think*). I never paid much
> attention to that particular acronym.
>

Armed Surface Recce (I *think*)

[Peter Stickney]

M. B. wrote:

>
>
>> Plane guard. ASR is Anti-surface Recce (I *think*). I never paid
>> much attention to that particular acronym.
>>
>
> Armed Surface Recce (I *think*)

Give Air-Sea Rescue a shot.
(After all, that's what the Plane Guard does)
--
Pete Stickney
Java Man knew nothing about coffee.

[Doug \Woody\ and Erin Beal]

On 5/14/05 4:40 AM, in article , "Peter Stickney"
> wrote:

> M. B. wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>> Plane guard. ASR is Anti-surface Recce (I *think*). I never paid
>>> much attention to that particular acronym.
>>>
>>
>> Armed Surface Recce (I *think*)
>
> Give Air-Sea Rescue a shot.
> (After all, that's what the Plane Guard does)

I think that M.B. Is right. Armed Surface Recce sounds familiar (again, not
a rotary winged guy). IIRC, it was a way to put some readiness points into
the PG function--i.e. Between launches, they'd go off and do ASR and be back
at the ship NLT 5 minutes prior to the first launch.

--Woody

[[email protected]]

Originally (in the Air Plan I saw) it was listed as "PG/ASR GUNNEX",
and the helo was in the air the whole day, with some hot refuelings and
crew switches - so that makes sense. Other helos were Alert 30 SAR (1
plane) and Alert 60 CSAR (2 planes), with 2 other relieving the CSAR
alert for a few hours while flying TERF mission. I saw no ASW helo
missions.

As far as I catched the general idea of the plan, I can distinguish
several groups of missions there:

- "offensive combat", incl. REC, CAS/XCAS, EW/XEW, SEAD,

With some others their existence I can only guess: DAS, FAC, ASuW, OCA,
escort?...

By the way - I guess "XCAS" is an "extended-range CAS" (refueled
en-route to the target) - not a "CAS on unspecified target"???

- "defensive combat", including all DCA and AEW flights,

- "alerts" and "spares" (which can easily turn into the above mentioned
categories),

- "combat support", like MTKR/RTKR,

With the Vikings gone, their brave crews flying 12 to 18 tanker
missions a day WITH ONLY 8 PLANES, a single F/A-18E squadron (now
becoming the main organic tanker asset for each CVW) certainly will
have a lot of "5-Wet" flying to do!

- "training", like ULT or BMB,

- "maintenance flights" (FCF or aircraft transfer),

- others, including fixed-wing logistics and helo-specific.

Best regards,
Jacek


Doug Woody and Erin Beal wrote:
> On 5/14/05 4:40 AM, in article , "Peter
Stickney"
> > wrote:
>
> > M. B. wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> >>> Plane guard. ASR is Anti-surface Recce (I *think*). I never
paid
> >>> much attention to that particular acronym.
> >>>
> >>
> >> Armed Surface Recce (I *think*)
> >
> > Give Air-Sea Rescue a shot.
> > (After all, that's what the Plane Guard does)
>
> I think that M.B. Is right. Armed Surface Recce sounds familiar
(again, not
> a rotary winged guy). IIRC, it was a way to put some readiness
points into
> the PG function--i.e. Between launches, they'd go off and do ASR and
be back
> at the ship NLT 5 minutes prior to the first launch.
>
> --Woody