A brief look at the legacy and future of the United States Navy's carrier-based support aircraft

摘要

In his review of the Navy's carrier-based support aircraft, Mr. Norris provides a superb outline of the genesis of carrier aviation requirements in the traditional mission areas of surveillance, reconnaissance, surface warfare, undersea warfare, electronic warfare, and logistics support. But even more important, he provides a keen insight into the evolving roles and missions of naval forces as we enter the 21st Century. Although incremental upgrades to Navy support aircraft appear to adequately sustain the carrier air wing for the remainder of this decade, Mr. Norris clearly defines legacy aircraft limitations and decisively illustrates the requirement to expand those capabilities in support of Navy strike aircraft. The inevitable expansion of roles in air warfare (early warning and cooperative engagement), electronic surveillance, precision targeting, signals intelligence, and logistics support will undoubtedly challenge the way naval aviation has conducted business in the past.