ChuckMK23 said:
What's up with the C-2 not doing night traps? DOes the CV mysteriously no longer need logistics support at night?
Someone explain that please...
There are several reasons, the main one being that 2 COD's and 6 pilots are limited, depending on the range, on how many hits they can do a day. As a det, we are simply limited on what we can accomplish daily and that was a constant battle I fought as OIC on my last cruise. We too have crew rest, something some simply don't care about or at least think about. The planes are old as well and it takes on average about 20 maint hours per flight hour to keep them flying. Besides logistics, one of our primary missions is pax/dv runs to the boat. Well, we cannot land at night on the boat with pax or DV's. In 99, we would deliver pax/cargo during the day and often not have anything left for the night run. I would say 80% of our night traps were airborne respots. What I'm trying to say is the night stuff just wasn't very effecient, especially when we compared what we did with the day only bubba's at VRC-40. They often carried more cargo, pax and with a better sortie completion rate. Being that there are only 35 (give or take) flyable C-2A's in the world, with no replacement in sight, the day/night ops were taking a toll on the maintenance efforts. I think our squadron failed 3 major MCI's in a row. The constant FCLP's also took a toll, reducing the number of landings on an aging aircraft.
In the beginning, the night program was sold on the tactical applications and money saving ability of night flying COD's. Meaning COD's could launch of the boat at night, carrying a team of SEAL's, insert them and land before day break. Great in theory but it was never used. There is absolutely no defensive capabilities built inot the COD. That will change with the C-2B but inserting SEALs in the real world is a good way to lose an airplane in anything but a low threat environment. I did para-drops on cruise, in Kuwait as a matter of fact, but for practice only.
The money saving came in the form of staying on the boat. A standard west coast COD det will spend anywhere from $500K to 800K in 6 months. In 4.5 months, my det spent $480K. That's not including gas. In 99, our budget was $50K, a huge difference but apparently, money is no longer an issue. This was due to the fact we deployed with the airwing, stayed onboard every night, a real carrier aviator. I loved that deployment, felt like part of the team. The night flying makes a pilot a better ball flyer, period. It's difficult at best. I went on to become one of the two primary night CQ instructors at the FRS, before it finally went away as well.
Anyway, from what I understand, those are the main reasons night flying at the boat went away. With SLEP underway, the landing might be a moot point but night flying I don't think will come back or be an issue until the C-2B. If it can deploy SEAL's in a threat envrionment and tank, it just might be used for night stuff. Just a guess on my part though.
