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[[image of airplane]]
S-3A Viking antisubmarine aircraft approaches for landing aboard USS Forrestal (CV 59). Admiral Miller suggests that S-3As could control critical chokepoints from land bases, operated by USAF crews. S-3A is a four-place aircraft powered by two GE TF34 turbofan engines.
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and practicing that kind of joint operation could be preparation for a time when carrier forces may be trying to hold a beachhead in Southwest Asia and shore-based airpower is available from nearby Air Force bases. Again, why must Navy A-6E and A-7E attack aircraft be confined to hitting sea-based and peripheral land targets simply because they are Navy aircraft? They could be used, for example, in Central Europe to augment land-based airpower that is in short supply. Shouldn't airmen be exercising that role now, rather than waiting until the in extremis conditions of actual combat?
Excellent Capabilities
In electronic warfare, the Navy has developed excellent capabilities, of which the EA-6B jamming aircraft is a prime example. These aircraft could be used to support Air Force missions in Central Europe or elsewhere, and Air Force, units could be practicing joint operations with them.
In early warning, the Navy must support USAF's E-3A AWACS. Fortunately, the Navy's E-2C Hawkeye seems to be compatible with the Air Force AWACS, and some exercises have been conducted that demonstrate the value of operating the two systems together. Shouldn't E-2C's be practic-
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ing for a role in support of Air Force operations in the European theater?
And, in terms of antisubmarine warfare, the Air Force could add demonstrably to this tactical Navy mission. There is a move to use B-52s in an ocean surveillance role, equipping them with sonobuoys and appropriate support equipment. That capability could be utilized and integrated into a joint operation with the Navy. In a similar vein, Navy antisubmarine aircraft like the normally carrier-based S-3A could be used in a shore-based role over chokepoints, operating from Air Force bases and flown by Air Force Crews.
Mine warfare, particularly that associated with naval operations,
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has long been an almost exclusive province of the Navy. Mines can be laid by shore-based P-3s or carrier-based aircraft, ships and submarines, and certainly by B-52s. It is noteworthy that this capability has been well recognized and that considerable progress for the inclusion of the Air Force in this mission has been made.
When evaluating Navy and Air Force airpower, one must consider flying training. An almost continual battle exists on this issue, not so much between the services as between certain key civilians and the Navy. For example, when Dr. Harold Brown was Secretary of Defense, he seemed to view the consolidation of all helicopter pilot training at Fort Rucker under the Army as one of the most significant issues on the Defense Department agenda. The Navy feared that such action was merely a nose in the tent, and that the next step would be to place all fixed wing pilot training under the Air Force.
Such perceptions, prompted by parochial roles and missions arguments, are not in the best interest of strong airpower. Many aspects of air training can and should be on a joint basis. If the services put more emphasis on joint approaches to the use of airpower, many objectives of cost savers and efficiency experts will be realized. But action should start with the military services, not by appointed officials in the Department of Defense or staff members on Capitol Hill.
If the Air Force and Navy each learn the capabilities of the other and apply them objectively, the nation's airpower can't help but be strengthened.
[[sidenote]]
Vice Adm. Gerald E. (Jerry) Miller, USN (Ret.), enlisted in the Navy on his seventeenth birthday, serving as a sailor in both Atlantic and Pacific Fleets before entering the Naval Academy in 1938, graduating in December 1941. He served in cruisers on combat duty in the South Pacific and the Alteutians campaigns of World War II. After becoming a naval aviator, he served in the Korean War as a jet fighter squadron commander. He has been an air wing commander, commanded an ammunition ship and the attack carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, a carrier division during the Vietnam War, the US Second Fleet in the Atlantic, and the US Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. He also served with the JCS and with the Nuclear Target Planning Staff at Hq. SAC, Offutt AFB, Neb., and before retirement in 1974 was Deputy Director of the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff, the agency responsible for developing the nation's strategic nuclear warfare plans. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Gulf + Western Industries, Inc., and serves other corporations in a similar capacity. He has also served as a consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the Office of Technology Assessment, and the General Accounting Office.