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Duties of an NFO

J

Johnny_Danger

Registered User
Excuse the ignorant question but I tried looking online and navy.com doesn't really do a good job explaining the job of an NFO...

I understand NFOs include RIOs (do they even have RIOs anymore?), and electronics warfare officers...

Could someone please answer some of these questions?

1) With the retiring of Tomcats and Prowlers? what airframes are NFOs currently being trained to fill?
2) Could someone please say roughly what percentage of SNFOs will be sent to S3s for anti-sub duty, Hornets for strike fighter duty, Hawkeye duty, etc... I'm curious if this community is pretty evenly spread out or if it's pretty lopsided like 60% of all NFO's go to Hawkeyes for example...
3) It always seems that NFO's get their job description listed near Pilots but is the job even really the same other than sitting next to/behind a pilot?

Sorry if these are newbie questions, there doesn't seem to be lots of threads in this discussion forum...
 
H

HawkeyeNFO

At the RAG
JD

Right NFOs fill billets in the P-3, E-2C, E-6, F/A-18F, and until they completely go away, the S-3 and the EA-6B. The Prowler community will be transitioning to the E/A-18G going from 3 NFOs to one. While the majority of the NFOs without a job will want to go Super Hornets, a good deal will go E-2s.

I can't give you a percentage of who goes where but I am sure it is still something like 2-3 people per class in Pensacola go Hawkeyes.

I may be biased in my answer but my job as a Hawkeye NFO is nothing like a pilots job. I am a battlespace manager. I do my job at a screen with my window to the outside world closed. The mindset of an E-2 guy/gal is a little different from everyone else. If you really enjoy flying and want to drop bomb and kill people then go jets. If you want to learn about what the Navy does as a whole, go Hawkeyes. If you really don't want to live on a boat (but you will eventually) go P-3s or E-6s.

Hope this helps.
 
TurnandBurn55

TurnandBurn55

Drinking, flying, or looking busy!!
None
JD,

Welcome to the board. You can do a search through these threads for answers to those questions (asked and answered many times, but I'll indulge)...

1) P-3s, EP-3s, E-6s, E-2s, EA-6Bs, F/A-18Fs
2) That's the million dollar question, isn't it? ;) Seriously, this varies from one month to the next. In my selection class in Advanced, we had 9 Navy guys-- 7 took Prowlers, 2 took F/A-18s. Another month it seemed everyone but one got Hornets. A few months nobody got Hornets. As someone said... Needs of the Service and Timing.
3) Depends on which NFO job you're talking about. WSOs in the F/A-18 (and I imagine the ECMO-1 in the Prowler) are doing a lot of copilot-like duties... running checklists, talking to ATC, setting up nav, cross-checking airspeeds and altitudes. In the E-2 it's the other extreme-- much more 'running the mission'...
 
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