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Imprecise thinking to precision weapons
Thomason chronicles history of Navy strike aircraft in book
Friday, Nov. 20, 2009
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A striking photograph released by Lockheed Martin this week showed the angular new F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter being escorted to the runway of the Patuxent River Naval Air Station by the older, curvy F/A-18 Hornet.
The gap between the two planes was only a few dozen feet, but there was a chasm of 30 years of aerodynamic design and mission definition between the two.
The two aircraft did share a common aspect, though. They both represent the merger of two roles Navy planes have served for the last 60 years — the air-to-air fighter and the air-to-ground attacker.
Last year, author Tommy Thomason told the fighter side of the story with his book "U.S. Naval Air Superiority," a survey of Navy fighters from 1943 to 1962. He's back this year with a new volume, "Strike from the Sea," which surveys the attack side of the equation from 1948 to the present.
Thomason will be making a return appearance at the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum in Lexington Park tonight to read from his new book, sign copies and take a few questions.
Thomason said he gained a love of naval aviation at the age of 12, watching the Cougars, Banshees, and Skyraiders deploy from Sangley Point Naval Air Station in the Philippine Islands. Unable to become a Navy pilot because of his nearsightedness, he instead studied aeronautical engineering and became a general aviation pilot.
Samples of Thomason's writing style can be found on his blog, TommyThomason.com, which mixes simple, yet thorough, explanations of odd and interesting naval aviation engineering solutions with a bit of wry humor.
Reached at his Milford, Conn., home by phone this week, Thomason was asked if he noticed any trends in his research for "Strike from the Sea."
"The [fighter] jets were developed much more rapidly," Thomason said. "They were putting out new ones every year. With attack aircraft, it was more of a case of weapons."
It was also a case of a rivalry with the nascent Air Force and a broadly focused mission.
"They couldn't quite figure out what they were doing," Thomason said, noting that the Navy often focused unduly on atomic weapon delivery so it could remain competitive with the upstart Air Force for federal funding dollars. "The Navy was really passive-aggressive."
Meanwhile, Navy engineers were trying to actually aim their conventional bombs. Since the Navy's attack platforms didn't progress as rapidly as its fighter platforms, Thomason said his book focuses more on precision weapons.
In the beginning, Navy bombing missions were assumed to be imprecise operations.
"It was like horseshoes, ‘close' counted," Thomason said.
Bombers were happy if they could drop their weapons within a football field-sized area around their targets. But with the advent of laser and satellite-guided bombs in the late 20th century, bombs became smaller and better focused.
"You only needed a few bombs, and they didn't have to be very big," Thomason said.
This innovation also led to the merger of the fighter and attack roles, since lighter airframes could handle precision bombing. In the last two decades, the Navy phased out the venerable A-6 Intruder attack jet and the iconic F-14 Tomcat fighter, leaving the F/A-18 to shoulder both roles and curbing development of specialized attack aircraft.
But Thomason said the Navy still maintains the edge over its enemies and even the Air Force with its carrier-based strike forces.
"The Navy can put the planes over the battlefield better than anyone else," he said.
If you go
The doors will open at 4:30 p.m. this afternoon, Nov. 20, for author Tommy Thomason's appearance at Patuxent River Naval Air Museum in Lexington Park. Books will be on sale, and Thomason will be available for signing. There is no admission fee for the event.
