Marines Winding Down Weapon Systems Officer Position, F/A-18Ds To Fly
With Pilot Only
The long-established
Weapon Systems Officer position is in the twilight of its existence within the
Marine Corps tactical jet community.
NAVY MEDIA
CONTENT SERVICES—PUBLIC DOMAIN
In our exclusive report
on the
integration of single-seat F/A-18C models into traditionally two-seat F/A-18D
'all-weather' Marine strike-fighter squadrons, and vice-versa, The War Zone has learned that the
Marines are in the process of winding-down the Weapon Systems Officer (WSO)
position entirely. Once existing WSOs filter out of the Hornet community, the
remaining missionized (not trainers) F/A-18Ds will be operated by just a pilot.
Captain Christopher Harrison, a Communications
Strategy Officer for Marine Corps' headquarters in the Pentagon, replied
to The War Zone's follow-up question
regarding the fate of Hornet WSOs as such:
"The Marine Corps is
no longer accessing WSOs. However, all WSOs currently in service and training
will be utilized in F/A-18Ds until the platform is deactivated or there are no
more WSOs in the fleet, whichever comes first. Further, we do not expect the Marine
Corps to man F/A-18Ds with two pilots (i.e. a pilot replacing the WSOs spot)
once we reach a point where there are no longer WSOs in the Fleet. A pilot can
fly and execute all missions in an F/A-18D without a WSO in the backseat (i.e.
keeping the seat empty). Having a WSO simply adds increase proficiency in
certain mission skills, such as FAC(A) [Foward Air Control-Airborne]."
USMC
VMFA(AW)-224 'Bengals'
Hornet seen during overseas operations.
The writing was on the
wall for the WSO job in the USMC's tactical aircraft community ever since the
service decided to move to an all F-35B and F-35C fighter force. But a series
of factors, including the Navy largely retiring its Legacy
Hornet fleet in favor of buying new Super Hornets and the
USMC not prioritizing retiring the Hornet or the Harrier as new F-35s are
delivered, seems to have impacted the timeline of the WSO's demise and the
unique identity of the Marine all-weather strike fighter squadrons they work
for.
Once the last WSO leaves
the fleet, it will mark the end of a long heritage of Marine fighter and attack
aircraft that leveraged the two-crew concept of operations for the service's
most challenging tactical air missions. This includes decades of operations
of F-4 Phantoms with Radar Intercept
Officers and A-6 Intruders with Bombardier
Navigators onboard.
Just earlier this year,
the Marines also said
goodbye to their only other multi-crew tactical jet that was in service,
the EA-6B Prowler. That aircraft has no direct replacement within the
USMC.
The Legacy Hornet still
has at least a decade of service left in it with the USMC. 84 of the jets are going to be
updated with powerful Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars,
along with other smaller upgrades, that will give them a whole new level of
capability as they venture into the twilight of their flying careers.
ED
DARACK VIA GETTY IMAGES
Still, it's bittersweet to see the end of the
Marine all-weather tactical jet squadron and the two-person crew concept that
gave those units enhanced abilities over their single-seat counterparts. At
least if any of the fully missionized F/A-18Ds are still floating around in
units that will primarily fly the single-seat C model, another pilot could jump
in the back if a bit more situational awareness is needed for certain missions.
But that isn't the same as having a specialist WSO onboard who has focused
their entire fast-jet career on mastering all the tactical tasks aside from
flying.
The WSO position will still be going strong in the
U.S. Navy for decades to come as its F/A-18Fs make up a substantial portion of
the fleet and there is no end in sight for the USAF's WSOs which man a more
diverse set of platforms.
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