Page 21 - Combat Aircraft (January 2020)

arresting cable or having to ‘bingo’ —
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and A-7 Corsair II, with some Intruders
divert to a nearby land base. becoming KA-6Ds. By the mid-1990s, the
Above:
The X-47B The requirement for carrier-based buddy store-equipped S-3 Viking and
Unmanned tankers came about in the mid-1950s jet ES-3A Shadow were the only tankers on
Combat Air era, with aircraft that were of shorter range carriers until being joined and ultimately
System —
Demonstrator than their predecessors. In addition, long- replaced by the Super Hornet, which
(UCAS-D) range missiles carried by Soviet bombers continues the role today.
completes created the need for the navy to intercept
preparations them at longer ranges, hence the need for Enter the MQ-25
for launching
aboard the airborne fuel. Boeing won the competition to build
aircraft carrier The US Navy lled the requirement in the MQ-25 tanker in part because it
USS Theodore
Roosevelt (CVN two ways: either by aircraft being tted had a prototype built, and one that
71) in November with ‘buddy stores’ to enable them to was already largely suited for the
2013. US Navy/ pass on fuel, or by retro tting existing navy’s requirements, but cost is a clear
MCS3C Heath
Zeigler types to act as tankers. Aircraft such as common denominator in many recent
the A-1 Skyraider and A-4 Skyhawk used major competitions. It was, however,
Below: The buddy stores, and types like the A-3 notable that Northrop Grumman
confi guration of
the Boeing UAV Skywarrior received drogue packages. pulled out of the running despite
was kept under Later, A-3Bs were converted to become having completed a huge amount of
wraps until it permanent tankers in sub-variants such pioneering work with its X-47B under
secured the
contract for the as the KA-3B and EKA-3B. The buddy store the Unmanned Combat Air System
navy. Boeing practice continued with the A-6 Intruder (UCAS) carrier demonstration program.
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