Posted on 10/20/2015 7:19:16 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Lockheed Martin has detailed a proposal to supply former US Navy S-3B Viking anti-submarine warfare aircraft to the South Korean Navy.
The work would see 12 S-3B's removed from long-term storage in the Arizona desert and updated with new equipment, says Clay Fearnow, director of maritime patrol programs at Lockheed Martin. Fearnow spoke to Flightglobal at the Lockheed Martin Chalet at the Seoul International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition 2015.
Fearnow, a former S-3B pilot, says the type has a number of attributes that make it suitable for a return to active service. He says the type was retired mainly owing to the absence of a submarine threat to US carrier battle groups with the end of the Cold War, as well as the navy's desire to narrow the number of aircraft types operating from carriers.
Lockheed estimates that the S-3B airframes in storage still have around 10-12,000hrs flying time remaining.
Fearnow says that the aircraft's cockpits would not require upgrading, but that several systems would. The aircraft's metalic anomaly detector would need to be updated from analogue to digital technology. Other work would involve the aircraft's sonobuoys and ESM equipment. Given South Korea's interest in developing its aerospace capabilities, any work to upgrade the aircraft would all but certainly be undertaken in South Korea, likely by Korea Aerospace Industries or KAL-ASD - the aerospace arm of Korea Airlines.
The aircraft would operate with a four man crew, and would be capable of carrying a mix of four torpedoes and/or anti-shipping missiles.
Other systems integrators, he adds, will likely bid for S-3B refurbishment work should the South Korean move forward with a formal request for proposals. He feels, however, that Lockheed's long experience with the type puts it in a strong position for any requirement that emerges. He says the US company has a significant amount of data about the jet, and conducted all major upgrades when the aircraft served with the US navy.
Should a deal be concluded, which could occur as soon as 2017, the S-3B could re-enter
service in 2019. The initial requirement for the type appears to be 12 aircraft.
When asked if it makes sense for South Korea to be the world's sole operator of a small fleet of bespoke aircraft, Fearnow says that 12 is probably the minimum size for such a fleet.
Moreover, he says that Lockheed has held discussions with two other Asian countries regarding the S-3B, as well as one South American country.
Although the S-3B no longer serves aboard US aircraft carriers, the US navy's VX-30 test and evaluation squadron still operates the type in support roles.
Sources at the ADEX show in Seoul say that South Korea is increasingly concerned about the threat posed by North Korea’s submarine fleet, creating a requirement to complement the country’s fleet of P-3C Orions.
Makes sense with the commies running around in submarines now. China and NK.
Keep in mind also that the Canadian CP-140, their version of the P-3 Orion, uses the S-3’s ASW suite. So even if pulling old units from storage (the ASW capability was pulled from the S-3 long before the type itself left service) rather than building something new, active/current working operational knowlege of it exists.
Uh huh...
The thing about the engines raises a good point: the S-3 was designed to use a lot of off the shelf components. The landing gear, iirc, was the same as the A-7’s, for instance.
The Navy doesn’t have much of a problem flying three of them as range aircraft out of Point Mugu. And I think NASA has one or two more operating out of Glenn. A fleet of 12 is definitely do-able, particularly forca country like South Korea.
I wonder which South American country wants them? The Argies and Brazilians are invested in S-2 Turbo Trackers, and Brazil is buying several more airframes from US sources for COD/AEW/Tanking for their Sao Paulo (ex-Foch) carrier.
We ought to return them to our Navy as well, not necessarily as an ASW platform but as the flying gas stations they were relegated to. After their retirement, F/A-18s had to take over the task of carrier-based inflight refueling. F/A-18s flying with massive drop tanks aren’t flying with ordnance.
The problem with using S-3s as tankers is that they don’t have that much gas to give. A super hornet with five wet stores has more on the wings than S-3 can carry total.
Yeah, thats a pretty stupid line.
The threat didn’t go away. It was just reduced to the point where land based fixed wing ASW, shipborne ASW and helo ASW could handle it. Making carrier based fixed wing ASW extraneous/redundant.
The S-3s lost their ASW capabilities in the 1990s. Mission computers and MAD got yanked. They still had the ability to drop sonobouys, but most of the launching tubes for those were plated over.
I guess scales of economy/logistics go against having S-3s as pure refuelers. Using the Super Hornet makes more sense in this regard.
“F/A-18s flying with massive drop tanks aren’t flying with ordnance.”
Yeah, and it wears out much needed fighter airframes.
An S-3B with ISAR radar makes a fine maritime patrol aircraft.
Analog technology, eh?
Then again, the cost-cutting admirals in OUR Navy were the ones who never fixed their old equipment when the Russian sub threat reduced (was never eliminated!) after Reagan won the Cold War.
Replacement for the S-3 in the tanking role was factored into the Super Hornet buy numbers.
And those numbers have been increased anyways thanks to delays in the F-35 and the need to retire trapped-out Legacy Bugs. We have at least one airwing thats all Super Hornet now (not including the E-2s, C-2s and MH-60)
When the F-35 starts hitting squadron service we’ll have a surplus of Super Hornets. So there shouldn’t be a concern about using them for tanking.
The ASW suites were yanked in the 1990s when fixed wing ASW was removed from the carrier wing. There was no need to upgrade it because it wasn’t seen as necessary anymore.
Just seems like a waste of an expensive fighter aircraft though, tasking it with refueling when it could be blowing s**t up.
I'm also a little nostalgic. I miss the S3s and their signature high-pitched wail flying out of NAS Jax.
I love the old “War Hoover”
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