E-2C Hawkeyes and C-2 CODs
December 29th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Erik Hildebrandt
These final two elements of the Pt Mugu photo mission required a lot of patience by these crews who literally orbited overhead the photo ship for about two hours before their turn behind the ramp came up. Luckily, the weather stayed clear and they were treated to the sweet light of a nearly setting sun over the Pacific. Thanks for hanging in there guys and it was great to be able to get you into the book!
Erok
VX-30 BLOODHOUNDS at POINT MUGU
December 29th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Erik Hildebrandt
On the second leg of the trip last week in California, I traveled over to Pt. Mugu Naval Air Station just south of Ventura. A beautiful spit of land that sticks out into the Pacific Ocean, the base is ideally located for the live-fire missile test and gunnery ranges out over the water and Channel Islands. On this flight, the Bloodhounds launched a genuine gaggle that included the C-130 platform we shot from and then a second C-130 as a subject followed by one of the last flying S-3 Vikings, and a P-3 Orion sub hunter. The weather was perfect and all the planets aligned to get these aircraft airborne in a rare dissimilar formation worthy of the Centennial of Naval Aviation project. At the end of this mission, we had two sections join us: a two ship of E-2C Hawkeyes and then a two-ship of C-2A CODs. That post will follow shortly.
VX-31 DUST DEVILS at CHINA LAKE
December 29th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Erik Hildebrandt
Sorry for the delay in updating, I have been on the road shooting on the West Coast and ramping up for an extended trip to cover the 5th Fleet AOR starting in the Northern Arabian Gulf and flying with CAG 11. The images in this post were shot just last week out in China Lake during a photo mission with VX-31, one of the flight test and evaluation squadrons based at Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD). The photo ship was a F/A-18F flown by Marine Major “Bookie” Mitchell and we were lucky enough to chase a unique section that included a vintage T-39 Sabrejet and a AV-8B Harrier through the Owens Valley ranges and over Mt. Whitney. As we were RTB, we formed up on a F/A-18G Growler heading home after a project hop and captured some good images of the multiple jamming pods familiar to the aging EA-6B Prowler that is being replaced by this latest and greatest electronic warfare platform.
JET SKI PIRATES GUN EXERCISE
December 10th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Erik Hildebrandt
When it comes to realistic training, the Navy knows just how to keep it real! As I was in Norfolk last fall ramping up production for this project, I was given the chance to ride along with HSC-22 SEA KNIGHTS on a mission to get several crew chiefs qual’ed on the M240 machine gun before the shipped out to Afghanistan. Before any service personnel can be deployed, they must have all their tickets punched for currency and qualification on the weapon systems they are expected to operate.
In this case, the M240 is the standard medium weight machine gun employed around the US services with infantry, ships, and aircraft. It fires a NATO standard 7.62mm round and has a selectable rate of fire between 600 and 1000 rounds per minute. A few miles off the shores of Virginia Beach, a civilian contractor operates several rigid inflatable boats or RIBs. One of these RIBS is radio controlled and is towing a daisy chain of salvaged personal watercraft hulls that have been filled with foam, painted day-glow orange and manned by a silhouette target cutout.
Our training mission consisted of a two-ship of the larger MH-60S Seahawks, similar to the Army UH-60 Blackhawk. Each aircraft was armed with a M-240 on either side and two gunners to be qualified. The entire floor was stacked with 300 round boxes of 7.62 ammo and once on station over the range, the two helicopters initiated a racetrack pattern that presented targets to alternating sides of the aircraft for the gunners to engage.
At first, the distances were about 100 yards and proved pretty difficult to affect accurate fire, but as the pilots worked the pattern closer to the targets, the fun quickly ended for the Jet Skis. It was obvious now why the hulls were filled with foam as round after round ate up the targets and whipped the ocean into a jacuzzi of lead and fiberglass. With very little imagination, it was easy to visualize the targets as an unfortunate band of pirates who happened to mess with the wrong container ship.
There were a few rounds left over after the crew chiefs had fired their required counts, so in order to clear out the remaining unspent ordnance, I was obliged to empty the last few boxes as the sun went down. I’m not sure if it is because shooting with a Nikon actually hones my marksmanship or that P3S Modern Warfare is so realistic, but either way, I managed to get an few “atta-boy”s from the flight deck, and that is what really makes this job so damn cool.
Video to follow!
Erok
