So Others May Live More of Naval Aviation Needs to Prioritize Range By CDR Matt Wright, USN Originally published in Proceedings, Vol. 149
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he January 2022 crash of an F-35C Lightning II attempting to land on board USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in the South China Sea gained attention around the world following the release of several dramatic videos of the event that quickly circulated on social media.1 Sadly, coverage of the mishap overshadowed the successful damagecontrol and rescue efforts that followed. The ejected pilot’s Explosive ordnance disposal personnel conduct a helicopter visit, board, search, and seizure retrieval from the ocean exercise with an MH-60R Sea Hawk on board the Arleigh Burke Class guided-missile destroyer and subsequent medical USS Dewey (DDG 105) in the Philippine Sea. U.S. Navy Photo evacuation (medevac) was an outstanding example of the enduring utility of rotary- practiced from Carl Vinson were accompanied by a longrange rescue posture from the HSC-4 Black Knights. They wing aircraft.2 Furthermore, the rescue and medevac missions illustrated the need for the Navy to include rotary-wing had developed procedures to deploy two specially equipped MH-60S aircraft hundreds of miles from the carrier. It was aviation requirements in future efforts to extend the reach of these aircraft that returned to the carrier shortly after the pilot the carrier air wing. had been rescued from the sea.6 The pilot was rescued by the ship’s plane-guard aircraft, an In addition to the F-35 pilot, two other service members MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter from Helicopter Sea Combat were seriously injured during the mishap, and all three required Squadron 4 (HSC-4). Conducting a traditional rescue within sight of the ship, the helicopter responded immediately on immediate medevac to higher-level medical care in Manila, approximately 300 nautical miles (nm) away. Even though hearing the emergency radio calls, expeditiously recovered the survivor via rescue litter, and landed back on board Carl CVW-2 included embarked CMV-22B Osprey aircraft, the Vinson just 34 minutes after the mishap.3 Navy rotary- MH-60S aircraft received the medevac tasking and completed the mission without delay.7 The HSC-4 crews were successful wing crews train repeatedly for this situation—an ejection because they had practiced similar missions at the edge of their close to the carrier during cyclic operations. However, the medevac demonstrates the importance of the Navy’s Rotary combat range and because they had deviated from standard Wing Community to meet Indo-Pacific theater mission aircraft fuel configurations to squeeze every possible mile of mission capability into every mission. requirements as well as the enduring need for Naval Aviation to develop new capabilities and doctrine coinciding with the In addition to two 180-gallon main fuel tanks, MH-60S air wing’s “return of range.”4 aircraft typically carry one 200-gallon internal auxiliary fuel tank, which extends the aircraft’s range by approximately Long Range Means Long Range The F-35 crashed after returning from a training mission 150 nm. HSC-4 had previously procured extra tanks and hundreds of miles from Carl Vinson. As the Navy focuses used them to fly long-range missions with a second internal on the threat from China, such long-range training missions auxiliary fuel tank, doubling the extended range and reducing the risk associated with their nighttime, 2.5-hour overwater have become increasingly common to remedy what Jerry Hendrix notably identified as the Navy’s “retreat from range” flight in poor weather to an unfamiliar airfield.8 during the post–Cold War period.5 Fortunately, the longrange strike missions Carrier Air Wing 2 (CVW-2) regularly Rotor Review #162 Fall '23
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