For example, the tiny 'LOX crew' cares for a tank of immensely hazardous liquid oxygen, which is used to refill the breathing air systems of some aircraft. This tank sits on an inclined ramp on the deck edge. A quick- release fitting allows it to be sent into the sea in the event of a fire, to prevent a catastrophic explosion.
Because of the high temperatures generated by the engine afterburners of aircraft like the F-14 Tomcat and F/A-18 Hornet, the JBDs contain a system of cooling channels, through which are pumped seawater. This system keeps the hydraulically erected JBDs from melting under the thermal pounding.
The Navy does not use radioactive steam to power its catapults. The steam that powers everything on the ship is actually heated in the secondary (non-radioactive) loop of the reactor plant. All of the radioactive components of the reactor plant are contained in either the reactor vessels or the primary cooling loop of the system.
Some people get lucky. In 1983, during an attempted launch on board the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), the crew of an A-6E Intruder suffered a 'cold shot,' and ejected just before the aircraft pitched over the end of the bow into the water. The pilot's ejection seat fired him up, and his parachute let him down gently, unhurt, onto the deck just in front of the JBD of the catapult that had misfired his aircraft! The bombardier/navigator was not quite so lucky. Because his seat fired an instant earlier, he was thrown farther aft and to the side, and his parachute caught the overhanging tail of an EA-6B Prowler before he hit the ocean. The emergency crews searched for over a half hour before they found the crewman hanging over the side aft of the island, bruised from banging heavily against the hull, but alive.
The only known 'live' service firing of Sea Sparrow occurred in 1992, when the USS Saratoga (CV- 60) accidentally launched a pair of the SAMs, one of which struck the Turkish destroyer Mauvenet. Five Turkish sailors were killed by the detonation of the warhead, including the ship's captain.
The name is a particularly rude reference to a habit of man's best friend.
For those of you with a desire to fully understand the workings of nuclear reactors in detail, see my book Submarine: A Guided Tour of a Nuclear Warship (Berkley Books, 1992). 44 The term 'Skunk Works' refers to the original Lockheed Advanced Projects Division in Burbank, California, which was headed by the legendary Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich, and was designed to produce 'out-of-the-box' ideas that could be rapidly and economically produced. Examples of the Skunk Works concept in action include the F-80 Shooting Star, the U-2 and SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft, and the F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter. A number of companies, including Newport News Shipbuilding and Boeing Military Aircraft, have set up similar organizations. 45 'Ski Jumps' were developed by the Royal Navy in the 1970's to improve the takeoff and load-carrying characteristics of V/STOL aircraft like the FRS.1/2 Sea Harrier and AV-8B Harrier II. The addition of a slight incline to the end of a flight deck provides the aircraft an upward 'push' at the critical point of takeoff. So effective are ski jumps at giving V/STOL aircraft 'something for nothing,' that almost every nation with carriers, with the exception of the United States, utilizes them in their carrier designs.
While Naval aviators did have some precision weapons such as Paveway II LGBs and the new AGM- 84E Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM), their stockpiles were small, and lacked the capabilities of the newest systems like the Paveway III LGB and GBU-15 electro-optical guided bombs. So rapidly were these stocks used up that the Navy had to borrow a supply of Paveway II LGB kits from the USAF so that they could continue to strike precision targets.
The 'Virtual Presence' campaign was designed to support additional procurement of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, hopefully with the funds that could be diverted by canceling production of additional aircraft carriers and their aircraft. Saner views took hold, and the production of the B-2 was capped at twenty-one.
'Black' procurement programs are designed to be so secret that they are not officially acknowledged in the federal budget. Only a select group of legislators and administrators are allowed to know of these projects, and the clearances required to work on them are above Top Secret.
As if all this was not absurd enough, there was the problem that DoD and the Navy improperly canceled the A-12 program, claiming that the GD and MDC had somehow 'defaulted' on the contract. Normally, such cancellations are of government 'convenience,' allowing the contractors to recover their losses and costs for
