Originally (in the Air Plan I saw) it was listed as "PG/ASR GUNNEX",
and the helo was in the air the whole day, with some hot refuelings and
crew switches - so that makes sense. Other helos were Alert 30 SAR (1
plane) and Alert 60 CSAR (2 planes), with 2 other relieving the CSAR
alert for a few hours while flying TERF mission. I saw no ASW helo
missions.

As far as I catched the general idea of the plan, I can distinguish
several groups of missions the

- "offensive combat", incl. REC, CAS/XCAS, EW/XEW, SEAD,

With some others their existence I can only guess: DAS, FAC, ASuW, OCA,
escort?...

By the way - I guess "XCAS" is an "extended-range CAS" (refueled
en-route to the target) - not a "CAS on unspecified target"???

- "defensive combat", including all DCA and AEW flights,

- "alerts" and "spares" (which can easily turn into the above mentioned
categories),

- "combat support", like MTKR/RTKR,

With the Vikings gone, their brave crews flying 12 to 18 tanker
missions a day WITH ONLY 8 PLANES, a single F/A-18E squadron (now
becoming the main organic tanker asset for each CVW) certainly will
have a lot of "5-Wet" flying to do!

- "training", like ULT or BMB,

- "maintenance flights" (FCF or aircraft transfer),

- others, including fixed-wing logistics and helo-specific.

Best regards,
Jacek


Doug Woody and Erin Beal wrote:
On 5/14/05 4:40 AM, in article , "Peter
Stickney"
wrote:

M. B. wrote:



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


Armed Surface Recce (I *think*)

Give Air-Sea Rescue a shot.
(After all, that's what the Plane Guard does)

I think that M.B. Is right. Armed Surface Recce sounds familiar
(again, not
a rotary winged guy). IIRC, it was a way to put some readiness
points into
the PG function--i.e. Between launches, they'd go off and do ASR and
be back
at the ship NLT 5 minutes prior to the first launch.

--Woody