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NASA is retiring the last Lockheed S-3B Viking still flying today, marking the end of a nearly fifty-year career for the iconic aircraft. While NASA’s Viking was used as a research aircraft, the U.S. Navy’s S-3s saw widespread use throughout the Cold War as anti-submarine warfare aircraft and even as a Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) aircraft, before moving on to serve in other roles, including as aerial refueling tankers and for electronic intelligence gathering. In Navy service, the S-3B may have never gotten the attention that more photogenic fighter aircraft tend to receive, but the Viking nevertheless boasted impressive capabilities...

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...

SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Yonhap) — South Korea is moving ahead to introduce refurbished S-3 Viking anti-submarine warfare (ASW) planes to counter threats from North Korea, a military source said Sunday. The defense ministry insider said the proposal to incorporate 12 former U.S. Navy Vikings into service was approved late last month by a military program review group. The latest development comes after the Navy proposed taking over 20 Vikings that have been kept in storage since 2009 to shore up the country’s detection and attack capabilities against Pyongyang’s submarine fleet. The twin-turbofan powered planes served as the primary ASW platforms...

The S-3 parked recently in a hangar at Jacksonville Naval Air Station looked like it just returned from the 1942 Battle of Midway. Very odd, given that the Viking is a two-engine jet that served as a sub hunter, tanker and much more during its 33-year career beginning in 1975. But the plane's newly applied retro paint job was actually meant to evoke the epic sea battle that turned the World War II Pacific campaign in America's favor. "We were going for a Midway effect," said Don Lockwood, a Navy employee helping return three S-3Bs, including the newly painted one,...

Navy officials confirmed yesterday that an aircraft carrier battle group failed to detect a Chinese submarine that surfaced within weapons range of the USS Kitty Hawk. Anti-submarine defenses for the carrier battle group will be reviewed as a result, they said.

USS ENTERPRISE, At Sea (NNS) -- The “Maulers” of Sea Control Squadron (VS) 32, currently assigned aboard USS Enterprise (CVN 65), are the first squadron to test the first-generation capabilities of the Low Altitude Navigation and targeting Infrared System for Night (LANTIRN) pod on their S-3 Viking aircraft. LANTIRN provides the aircraft with new capabilities, such as Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR), live video feedback to the ship for real-time use, and video recording for later intelligence debriefing. Future models of LANTIRN will include laser designation capabilities. This sophisticated sensor pod mounts on the aircraft's wing station and is operated by the...

For Release On: Contact: Stephanie Morris February 8, 2005 202-628-7772 smorris@venturecommunications.com Legislation Protecting Vaccine Manufacturers from Liability Under the Guise of Protecting Americans from Terror Introduced by Senator Gregg SafeMinds Urges Opposition to Senate Bill Denying Compensation to Victims of Mercury Related Neurological Problems Resulting from FDA Approved Medications Washington, DC —Once again, Senators Gregg (R-NH) and Frist (R-TN) have introduced legislation to shield the pharmaceutical industry from responsibility for exposing American children to harmful levels of mercury from thimerosal, a mercury containing preservative widely used in infant vaccines. The bill, S. 3, “Protecting America in the War on Terror...

Agents from the Yuma sector of the U.S. Border Patrol have apprehended more illegal aliens in the month of July than in any other July in the sector's history. In one of the hottest months of the year, agents from the Yuma, Wellton and Blythe stations arrested and processed 10,773 aliens in the 31-day month, said Joe Brigman, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Yuma sector. In recent years, apprehensions normally taper down when the hotter part of the summer arrives, Brigman said, but that has not been the case this year. In fact, the patrol has seen no signs that...