Control System. Long-range command and control and electronic intercept bird with superb capabilities.
AWG-9 Pronounced “awg nine,” the primary search and fire control radar on a Tomcat.
BACKSEATER Also known as the GIB, the guy in back. Nonpilot aviator available in several flavors: BN (bombardier/navigator), RIO (radar intercept operator), and TACCO (Tactical Control Officer) among others. Usually wear glasses and are smart.
BEAR Russian maritime patrol aircraft, the equivalent in rough terms of a U.S. P-3. Variants have primary missions in command and control, submarine hunting, and electronic intercepts. Big, slow, good targets.
BITCH BOX One interior communications system on a ship. So named because it’s normally used to bitch at another watch station.
BLUE ON BLUE Fratricide. U.S. forces are normally indicated in blue on tactical displays, and this term refers to an attack on a friendly by another friendly.
BLUE WATER NAVY Outside the unrefueled range of the airwing. When a carrier enters blue water ops, aircraft must get on board (e.g., land, and cannot divert to land if the pilot gets the shakes).
BOOMER Slang for a ballistic missile submarine.
BOQ Bachelor Officer Quarters — a Motel Six for single officers or those traveling without family. The Air Force also has VOQ, Visiting Officer Quarters.
BUSTER As fast as you can (i.e., bust your ass getting here).
C-2 GREYHOUND Also known as the COD, Carrier On-board Delivery. The COD carries cargo and passengers from shore to ship. It is capable of carrier landings. Sometimes assigned directly to the air wing, it also operates in coordination with CVBGs from a shore squadron.
CAG Carrier Air Group Commander, normally a senior Navy captain aviator. Technically, an obsolete term, since the air wing rather than an air group is now deployed on the carrier. However, everyone thought CAW sounded stupid, so CAG was retained as slang for the Carrier Air Wing Commander.
CAP Combat Air Patrol, a mission executed by fighters to protect the carrier and battle group from enemy air and missiles.
CARRIER BATTLE GROUP A combination of ships, airwing, and submarines assigned under the command of a one-star admiral.
CARRIER BATTLE GROUP 14 The battle group normally embarked on the
CBG
CDC Combat Direction Center — modernly, replaced CIC, or Combat Information Center, as the heart of a ship. All sensor information is fed into CDC and the battle is coordinated by a Tactical Action Officer on watch.
CG Abbreviation for a cruiser.
CHIEF The backbone of the Navy. E-7, -8, and -9 enlisted paygrades, known as chief, senior chief, and master chief. The transition from petty officer ranks to the chief’s mess is a major event in a sailor’s career. On board ship, the chiefs have separate eating and berthing facilities. Chiefs wear khakis, as opposed to dungarees for the less senior enlisted ratings.
CHIEF OF STAFF Not to be confused with a chief, the COS in a battle group staff is normally a senior Navy captain who acts as the admiral’s XO and deputy.
CIA Christians in Action. The civilian agency charged with intelligence operations outside the continental United States.
CIWS Close In Weapons System, pronounced “see-whiz.” Gattling gun with built-in radar that tracks and fires on inbound missiles. If you have to use it, you’re dead.
COD
COLLAR COUNT Traditional method of determining the winner of a disagreement. A survey is taken of the opponents’ collar devices. The senior person wins. Always.
COMMODORE Formerly the junior-most admiral rank, now used to designate a senior Navy captain in charge of a bunch of like units. A destroyer commodore commands several destroyers, a sea control commodore the S-3 squadrons on that coast. Contrast with CAG, who owns a number of dissimilar units (e.g., a couple of Tomcat squadrons, some Hornets, and some E-2s and helos).
COMPARTMENT Navy talk for a room on a ship.
CONDITION TWO One step down from General Quarters, which is Condition One. Condition Five is tied up at the pier in a friendly country.
CRYPTO Short for some variation of cryptological, the magic set of codes that makes a circuit impossible for anyone else to understand.
CV, CVN Abbreviation for an aircraft carrier, conventional and nuclear.
CVIC Carrier Intelligence Center. Located down the passageway (the hall) from the flag spaces.
DATA LINK, THE LINK The secure circuit that links all units in a battle group or in an area. Targets and contacts are transmitted over the LINK to all ships. The data is processed by the ship designated as Net Control, and common contacts are correlated. The system also transmits data from each ship and aircraft’s weapons systems (e.g., a missile firing). All services use the LINK.
DDG Guided missile destroyer.
DESK JOCKEY Nonflyer, one who drives a computer instead of an aircraft.
DESRON Destroyer Commander.
DICASS An active sonobuoy.
DICK STEPPING Something to be avoided. While anatomically impossible in today’s gender-integrated services, in an amazing display of good sense, the Navy has not required gender neutrality.
DOPPLER acoustic phenomena caused by relative motion between a sound source and a receiver that results in an apparent change in frequency of the sound. The classic example is a train going past and the decrease in pitch of its whistle. When a submarine changes its course or speed in relation to a sonobuoy, the event shows up as a change in the frequency of the sound source.
DOUBLE NUTS Zero zero on the tail of an aircraft.
E-2 HAWKEYE Command and control and surveillance aircraft. Turboprop rather than jet, and unarmed. Smaller version of an AWACS, in practical terms, but carrier-based.
ELF Extremely Low Frequency, a method of communicating with submarines at sea. Signals are transmitted via a miles-long antenna and are the only way of reaching a deeply submerged submarine.
ENVELOPE What you’re supposed to fly inside of if you want to take all the fun out of naval aviation.
EWs Electronic warfare technicians, the enlisted sailors that man the gear that detects, analyzes, and displays electromagnetic signals. Highly classified stuff.
F/A-18 HORNETS The inadequate, fuel-hungry, intended replacement for the aging but still kick-your-ass potent Tomcat. Flown by the Marines and the Navy.
FAMILYGRAM Short messages from submarine sailors’ families to their deployed sailors. Often the only contact with the outside world that a submarine sailor on deployment has.
FF/FFG Abbreviation for a fast frigate (no, there aren’t slow frigates) and a guided missile fast frigate.
FLAG OFFICER In the Navy and Coast Guard, an admiral. In the other services, a general.
FLAG PASSAGEWAY The portion of the aircraft carrier that houses the admiral’s staff working spaces. Includes the flag mess and the admiral’s cabin. Normally separated from the rest of the ship by heavy plastic curtains, and designated by blue tile on the deck instead of white.
FLIGHT QUARTERS A condition set on board a ship preparing to launch or recover aircraft. All unnecessary persons are required to stay inside the skin of the ship and remain clear of the flight deck area.
