This has significantly changed in the last 5 years. Pilots are now being much more integrated into mission execution. When teaching at the rag 2018-20 I definitely noticed the "iron cockpit curtain" when flying with native E-2C Pilots (I'm a native E-2D dude). ICS improvements and community mentality has led to a significantly more integrated crew. Hell, they were in the early stages of a T-4O (tactical fourth operator) syllabus for pilots when I was there.
Thats interesting, I was wondering how that was going to play out, particularly when D “natives” started coming back from the Fleet to IP billets. I was flying it at Pax in the early days of Fleet introduction and the idea of mission integration for the front end was…not universally embraced. Some of the more senior pilots would hiss and throw holy water on anyone who even said “T4O,” and it wasn’t unusual to hear things like “Flight, CICO…will you please stop fucking around with the radar.”
Interesting. My son occasionally works with a screen-writing team that does small projects. We were discussing the movie “Das Boot” and I said it would be interesting to make a modern version from the view of an ASW aircraft perspective (I think the P-3 was still the big one then). The crew would struggle with a series of emergencies and close runs (like non-friendly fighter close fly by’s) all while tracking a submarine that they’ve been told may be preparing to launch its missiles. The basic idea is somewhat standard, a group of people who can’t escape the challenges before them because they are “trapped” in a confined area central to their circumstances. Hello? Hollywood?
Considering the P-8 effectively has no self defense other than running away, a close fly by is the least of my concerns. I’m worried about the bad guys with current missiles hundreds of miles away.
Fair enough…but I didn’t say it needed to be “realistic.” One of the NFO characters could have the call sign - Hot Pockets.
If you want to show the world what real ASW looks like, just show them this . . .
The home run would be a top notch EO/IR ball for the pilots to fuck with. Use some sort of wizardry to slave it to radar hits, but also just let them look around. Boats or goats, depending on the theatre.
If you want to show the world what real ASW looks like, slow this scene down so that it take 3-4 hours. ASW... Awfully Slow Warfare
When I was at Pax I actually saw a pic of an E-2 with an EO/IR ball on the nose. Took the place of the old LOX ball. I asked one of the Grumman graybeards about it and he said it was a proof of concept for some sort of optical TBM tracking system they were fucking around with in the early 2000s. Obviously never went anywhere, but it can be done.
These days every airplane should have some type of EO/IR ball on it.
Hmm. Who would PED it?
Honestly, a Pilot or NFO could do the job well enough. But the Intel community's rice bowl is not only strong, but littered with legalese that makes it so they are the only one's who can do it. It's not that they're good at it.
What does PED mean in that context?
