On 5/10/05 12:19 PM, in article
, "
wrote:

Once upon a time I came across an Air Plan from a USN aircraft carrier,
and there are some things I cannot understand:

Of course, mission abbreviations like DCA, SEAD, AEW, ULT or CSAR, are
quite common for people who are interested in military aviation for
some time, but could somebody, please, tell me are the following?:
- 2VX

2 "blue air" fighters versus an "unknown" number of "red" bandits.

- 4VX

4 fighters versus unknown number of bandits.

(This is about F/A-18 and F-14 I've read somewhere these are
"self-escort" missions? What kind of self-defense - BVR or Sidewinders
only?)

Self-escort strike is abbreviated SES. It's BVR. The 2vX or 4vX that
you're looking at is probably an air-to-air mission only.

- RED

Bandits for the 2vX or 4vX

- RED LD

Red Lead. Squadron responsible for setting and leading the bandit
presentation.

(I guess it has something to do with strike missions - does LD mean
"low drag" or "laser designated"? Are 2VX/4VX and RED somehow connected
- I mean the latter are strikers and the former are escort?)
- TERF
(Concerning helos. Looks like "terrain flight" - but over the sea???)

Terrain following. This is done over land.

- PG/ASR

Plane guard. ASR is Anti-surface Recce (I *think*). I never paid much
attention to that particular acronym.

(PG is "plane guard", but ASR?)

Another thing: do you have any idea what this black triangles in some
places of the plan mean? From what I've read, they may something with
flight deck readiness status or fueling?


Hot switches. Aircraft stays turning. Pilots switch out. The solid
triangles are the hot refuelings. The empty triangles should be crew
switches only.

It looked a bit similar for a SH-60F helo that was airborne for a whole
day - there were "filled" (black) and "empty" (white) diamonds on his
line in the Air Plan - can they mean hot refuelings or crew exchanges?

Best regards,

Jacek