USN Time to Bring Back the S-3 Viking?

[sevenhelmet]

Percolate coffee? For what it cost it ought to steam milk for your latte as well.

That was in the original design, but it was cut due to the B variant cost overruns.

 

[picklesuit]

The Viking "RAGNAR" concept is alive and well: "Remanufactured Aerial Gunship & Naval Aviation Refueler". In some circles, also called the Viking "Longship", due to the 10' fuselage plug insert (and other extensive structural mods) required to mount the essential add-ons:
1. The standard General Electric TF-34 turbofan jet engines (which powered the stock Viking variants) are being replaced with the brand new, highly derivative (and still secret) Jordan-Jumo-Daimler TF-200 liquid nitrogen-cooled Gandalf engines. Thrust vectoring in all attitudes/airspeeds/AOAs, and with (reportedly) the IR signature of a snow-blower.
2. Additionally, all of the standard external tanks and racks on the existing hard points will be replaced with permanent housings encapsulating both the Browning-Vickers 25 MM “Sky Sweeper” gatling guns or Webley-Oerlikon 60 MM “Hell Hammer” cannon systems for CAS and gunship interdiction missions.
3. Conformal tanks on the sides of the Longship fuselage, and probably on the top deck of the aircraft, will dramatically alter the external mold-line configuration of the aircraft, but are necessary to hold the required quantities of HV2 (High Volatility/High Viscosity) ultra high performance turbine fuel required by the TF-200s, as well as the standard JP-5 tankage to support the legacy aircraft refueling requirement.
3. Much of what's happening internally to the fuselage remains less certain, as are the missile programs thought to be in the works. First among these is still speculated to be a mix of the family of (still) "black" missile programs known only as "Terminators": specifically, the "Hell Hound", "Fell Beast" and "Night Warg" systems. All designed with a max weight limit of 250# (113.5 KG), this family of weapons, which can be loaded in any mixed configuration (on drop-down racks/rotary rails from torpedo bay station only), will be the first to truly achieve the long-sought concept of "I wish you were dead" missiles.
4. The two Lockheed-Martin prototype Longship aircraft (both in concurrent design and developmental test) are still confined to the Groom Lake Complex in Nevada and operating only at night under no more than waxing or waning gibbous moon illumination.

Dammit R1,
That brief was market SECRET-NOJUBLOV!

 

[Uncle Fester]

The Viking "RAGNAR" concept is alive and well...

Foxtrot Alpha picks up this story in 3...2...1...

 

[jmcquate]

Has an airframe ever been put back into fleet service after being taken out of fleet service? I can't think of one.

 

[xj220]

I don't know of airframe, but battleships were brought back for a brief time.

 

[jmcquate]

I don't know of airframe, but battleships were brought back for a brief time.

Ya, the Iowas were brought back three times. The first two times with no significant changes, into a fleet that still used boilers to run and big guns to fight. The third time modified into almost a whole new class of ship. Sort of apples and oranges.

 

[picklesuit]

Plus the Missouri defeated some aliens out in PACFLT...

 

[jmcquate]

Plus the Missouri defeated some aliens out in PACFLT...

You've AWs own little IMDB lately Pickle.

 

[picklesuit]

You've AWs own little IMDB lately Pickle.

I've been geobacheloring since 28October and was laid up all last week on the couch.

All I've been doing is watch movies, the Internet, and sleep.

 

[Treetop Flyer]

Plus the Missouri defeated some aliens out in PACFLT...

I believe Asian American is the preferred nomenclature

 

[sevenhelmet]

Plus the Missouri defeated some aliens out in PACFLT...

Please be politically correct, gentlemen. They were undocumented visitors.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Has an airframe ever been put back into fleet service after being taken out of fleet service? I can't think of one.

They bring back planes from the boneyard all the time, but never after being completely retired, as far as I know. The VX-30 Hoovs were from AMARC.

That being said - I think some FMS airplanes retired from US service were boneyard-sourced. The Stoofs going to Brazil, for example.

 

[sevenhelmet]

VX-30 is supposed to be out of the S-3 biz in a matter of months. No immediate plan for a replacement yet, either.

 

[Flash]

Has an airframe ever been put back into fleet service after being taken out of fleet service? I can't think of one.

Not on such a large scale as the S-3 proposals but as Fester says they do pull individual airframes out of there all the time. A couple of examples; all EP-3's were P-3C's from the boneyard, QF-4's, ROK P-3's, QF-16's, and even a WB-57 that had been a resident for over 40 years was recently reactivated.

 

[707guy]

VX-30 is supposed to be out of the S-3 biz in a matter of months. No immediate plan for a replacement yet, either.

NASA Glenn in Cleveland has one flying and one going through rework now. I'd say they'll be flying those two for years to come.