Jason H wrote:

We had, if I recall, a grand total of three no-fly days the entire time we
were in-theatre. For three months, damn near non-stop, we flew planes from
1100 to 0100 or 0200. I know this because I was on that deployment, working
in one of the avionics shops. When we weren't flying, we had the alert 15s
posted on cats 1 and 2. If we weren't flying, we were ready to. So, to
answer your question, yes, it is quite possible for a CVW to maintain at
least a 75% FMC (fully mission capable) status flying day after day after
day after day after FRIGGIN DAY. It wasn't fun though. I'd like to think us
ATs in AIMD had something to do with that :-).

Jason, thank you for your answer! It looks it worked very similarly to
USS Abraham Lincoln/CVW-14 scenario from 2002, I've heard a bit of.


EA-6Bs have been forward deployed for a while, I know our Shadowhaks
(VAQ-141) replaced another group of prowlers from the carrier we relieved
(can't remember which one) and the prowlers from the Reagan replaced ours.
Forward-deploying the hornets, though, was new. As far as I know, we're the
only carrier that's done that.

The carrier must have been Nimitz, with CVW-11 (including VAQ-135 Black
Ravens) on board. Some CVWs borrowed their VAQ unit to Al Asad or
Iwakuni, but this was at the time when their whole CSGs were not
deployed.


KC-10s and KC-135s can hold a hell of a lot more fuel than an S-3 or a KA-18
can. However, the KA-18 (my name, don't know if that's the real name) can
hold a surprising amount of fuel. They look pretty funny with 5 fuel tanks
on them.

Yes, but they are a joint asset - neither USN, nor USMC ones.

Best regards,
Jacek