Latest news with #SuperHornet
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
What it takes to be a Navy pilot
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier has been an airport at sea since 2009. Over 5,000 sailors are on board when the ship is at capacity, and the F-18 and F-35 pilots are one of the main jobs. Being a part of naval aviation takes years of training, and when News 2's Shelby Mac came aboard the CVN-77 pilots were doing aircraft carrier qualifications. This is when pilots must take off and land on the aircraft carrier during the day and night a certain number of times, and get a certain score to be ready for upcoming missions. Lieutenant Andrew Mueller, F-18 Instructor Pilot, has been training new naval pilots on the U.S.S. George H. W. Bush this season. 'We teach them to fly the Super Hornet, and this is final, their graduation here in which we're teaching them to land on the ship both day and night,' said Mueller, call sign Doug. Tour the Captain's Import Cabin aboard the USS George H. W. Bush This is no small task since the runway is 300 feet with the assistance of a catapult versus more than 5,000 feet on dry land for an F-18 take-off. 'As you launch off a catapult your brain is experiencing this feeling of rolling back in your head and it's giving the sensation that you're being shot up into the ether, so you really don't want to manipulate the controls until after you've come off then end, and the jets auto-trimmed to fly you away. So, you don't want to hastily grab the stick and push it either direction. So nice, disciplined shot, sweet, good shot, safely fly away, and then go into your procedures from there.' Mueller is a second-generation Navy pilot, and the Hollywood movies helped others understand what exactly his dad's job was. 'My old man was actually a Navy Aviator back in the day, and prior to the original Top Gun movie coming out, people had no idea what Naval Aviators did, what an aircraft carrier was. It was almost an unknown group of fighter pilots going out and doing things, but once you make a couple of movies about it, then I think it puts it into the public's imagination, and it increases recruiting and retention as well.' Mueller said he's proud of the work naval aviation does for our country, but the team wouldn't be successful without the entire crew. 'There are thirteen pilots and maybe ten jet aircraft, but honestly, there are 300 hard-working Navy sailors who are making sure that the engines are operational, the flight controls are there, and the software, everything that makes the whole team work.' Once pilots have made a specific score on taking off and landing during the day, night comes and it's time to land on a moving runway in complete darkness. To see more from Shelby's naval journey, check out the News 2 special report . Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
The United States Must Retaliate Against Whatever Aquatic Demon Is Dragging Its Fancy Fighter Planes to the Watery Depths
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Troubling news from the ocean today: Apparently the crew of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier has allowed an F-18 'Super Hornet' fighter jet to fall into the water, where it can no longer be used for its intended purpose of flying in the air, for the second time in a week: The F/A-18F Super Hornet jet, worth about $67 million, went overboard after an unsuccessful attempt to slow it down upon landing on the USS Harry S. Truman, the Navy said in a statement. Both aviators aboard the jet safely ejected and were rescued at sea by helicopter with minor injuries, and no one aboard the warship's flight deck was harmed, the service said. That report is from the Washington Post, which notes that there were also no serious injuries sustained during the Truman's prior instance of 'airplane falling into ocean' one week ago. In that incident, a jet being towed to its hangar went overboard, the military says, because the carrier (if we can still call it that, given its checkered history of carrying aircraft) swerved to avoid Houthi rebel fire off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea. A Business Insider write-up of the incident briefly went viral on Wednesday night because its headline appeared to suggest a third jet had just been lost from the Truman; the article was accurate, but in mentioning a third plane, it was actually referring to an incident last December in which a Truman-deployed Super Hornet was accidentally shot down by the USS Gettysburg missile cruiser. (Both of the aviators aboard survived.) So, as far as that third one, we didn't let it fall off the ship, we just shot it down ourselves. In total, the cost of USS Truman Super Hornets lost since December ($67 million each) is nearly equal to the entire annual budget of the National Endowment for the Arts ($207 million). 'The mishaps have the attention of senior U.S. military leaders, a defense official familiar with the discussion said Tuesday night,' the Post reports. Good to know. In February, incredibly, the Truman was in the news because it ran into a cargo ship near the Suez Canal. Simply put, we may be talking about one of the worst-performing boats of all time. Or maybe that's unfair; maybe the Truman is being stalked by an undersea monster or ocean beast that keeps reaching its hideous tentacles out of the briny deep to grab airplanes. Either way, deterrence theory calls for a swift counterattack against the ocean. Inaction only emboldens the Truman's enemies, which in this case include gravity and potentially an octopus, and encourages further mischief. The best time to shoot a nuclear missile at the Great Barrier Reef in order to 'show it who's boss' was yesterday; the second-best time is now (1300 hours). We fight them (sharks) there so they don't come here. Anchors away!
Saudi Gazette
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
Second US fighter jet falls overboard from US aircraft carrier
WASHINGTON — For the second time in just eight days, a US fighter jet has been lost to the Red Sea after falling from the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier, US officials say. An F/A-18F Super Hornet was attempting to land on the Truman's flight deck on Tuesday when a manoeuvre failed, "causing the aircraft to go overboard", an official told the BBC's US partner CBS News. The two crew members inside the aircraft ejected, and sustained minor injuries in the incident. The jets are reportedly worth around $67m (£50m) each. "Both aviators safely ejected and were rescued by a helicopter assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 11," the official told CBS. It comes after another Super Hornet went overboard into the same sea last Monday in a separate incident. It was "under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft", a US Navy statement said. A sailor sustained minor injuries, and a tractor that had been towing the aircraft was also pulled into the the second incident, officials said there was a failure of an arrestment — referring to a cable that is used to help slow down a jet as it incident is still under investigation, and the aircraft has yet to be jet may have tipped overboard after the aircraft carrier made a sharp turn while taking evasive action against Houthi militants in Yemen, US officials told hours earlier on Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced that the US would stop attacking the Iran-backed Houthis if the group stopped targeting shipping in the Red Truman has been involved in several incidents in its Red Sea deployment, including last December, when the USS Gettysburg mistakenly shot down another F/A-18 fighter jet that was operating from the carrier. Both crew members survived. — BBC
The Hill
07-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Navy loses another aircraft to Red Sea
The fighter jet from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier was landing on the flight deck 'when the arrestment failed, causing the aircraft to go overboard,' a defense official told The Hill. The arrestment is the hook system aircraft use to catch steel wire ropes on the flight deck as it lands, and it is unclear what part of the system was faulty. As the fighter went overboard, its two pilots were forced to eject, but they were rescued by a search-and-rescue helicopter and only had minor injuries, with no flight deck personnel injured, according to the official. The loss of the more than $60 million Super Hornet is the latest incident aboard the Truman as it engaged in a U.S. airstrike campaign against Houthi militants in Yemen, which began March 15 but appears to be paused following President Trump's announcement Tuesday that there is now a ceasefire between the two sides. The ceasefire, mediated by Oman, has secured a tentative end to attacks on American ships in the Red Sea, but details are slim on the concessions made by both sides. Still, the ceasefire allows the Trump administration to claim victory in clearing the pathway for commercial shipping and that served to justify the military campaign against the designated-terrorist group in Yemen. Trump on Wednesday credited the U.S. strikes with bringing the Houthis to the table. Since mid-March, the U.S. military has said it has struck more than 1,000 targets in Yemen as part of Operation Rough Rider. The strikes have killed 'hundreds' of Houthi fighters and leaders, including senior Houthi missile and UAV officials, and degraded their capabilities, Pentagon officials claimed late last month. ' We hit them very hard. They had a great capacity to withstand punishment. They took tremendous punishment… But we honored their commitment and their word, they gave us their word that they wouldn't be shooting ships anymore and we honor that,' Trump said during a swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office for his new ambassador to China, former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga). The Truman aircraft carrier strike group has been in the Middle East region since this past fall, and in that time it has lost at least three F/A-18s. The first was shot down in the Red Sea in December when it was 'mistakenly fired' upon by the USS Gettysburg, though both pilots ejected safely. The Truman lost the second Super Hornet on April 28 when the jet 'was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft' and it fell overboard, according to the Navy. Initial reports suggested that the carrier was forced to make a hard turn to evade Houthi fire, leading to the F/A-18 sliding off the deck.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Another Navy Fighter Jet Crashes into the Red Sea for the Second Time in 8 Days. This Time, 2 Pilots Were Injured
For the second time in eight days, a fighter jet has gone overboard the USS Harry S. Truman, plummeting into the Red Sea "Both aviators safely ejected and were rescued by the search and rescue helicopter," a defense official tells PEOPLE of the most recent incident on Tuesday, May 6 The same day, the Houthis, a rebel group based in Yemen, "took a shot" at the aircraft carrier, according to a report A fighter jet failed to land on the USS Harry S. Truman — the second time in eight days that a multi-million dollar Super Hornet has gone overboard the aircraft carrier into the Red Sea. The F/A-18F Super Hornet was in the process of landing on the flight deck when the 'arrestment failed' and the aircraft went overboard on Tuesday, May 6, a defense official confirms with PEOPLE. 'Both aviators safely ejected and were rescued by the search and rescue helicopter attached to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 11,' the official adds. 'The aviators were evaluated by medical personnel and assessed to have minor injuries. No flight deck personnel were injured.' Related: Donald Trump Asks Boeing to Design a New Military Jet. He's Naming It After Himself Gerard Bottino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty The aircraft carrier was deployed to the Red Sea last September The aircraft carrier was deployed to the Red Sea last September An official told NBC News that the tail hook did not successfully catch the wire meant to slow the fighter jet down, resulting in the aircraft plummeting into the water. The investigation is ongoing. The accident came just over a week after another fighter jet plunged into the Red Sea on Monday, April 28. A F/A-18E was being towed in the aircraft carrier's hangar bay when the crew lost control of the fighter jet, which caused the aircraft and tow tractor to go overboard, according to the U.S. Navy. 'Sailors towing the aircraft took immediate action to move clear of the aircraft before it fell overboard,' the Navy said. One sailor sustained a minor injury, and an investigation is ongoing. The Super Hornet was worth $67 million, NBC News reported. Related: Video Shows Navy Fighter Jet Crashing Nose-First into San Diego Harbor After Pilots Had to Eject The same day that the second jet went overboard, the Houthis 'took a shot' at the Truman, sources told CNN. The incident occurred just hours after President Donald Trump said the U.S. would 'stop the bombings' against the rebel group in an apparent ceasefire, the outlet reported. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The incidents are among multiple missteps involving the Truman since it was deployed last September. The ship has helped ensure the Navy was better equipped to battle the Iran-backed militant group that began attacking international shipping in late 2023, according to The Washington Post. Read the original article on People
