Hasegawa 1:72 S-3A Viking (USNavy Anti Submarine Aircraft) Kit HAE07

Hasegawa 1:72 S-3A Viking (USNavy Anti Submarine Aircraft) Kit HAE07

The S-3A was developed in the late 1960s to replace thevenerable S-2 Tracker as a carrier-borne ASW platform. It had to have the most sophisticatedASW equipment available as well as to be able to carry the appropriate offensiveweapons to destroy whatever submarines it found. It also needed to have a long loiter time to enable it to properly track the sub until it became an obvious threat or until reinforcements arrived on scene. The aircraft also had a number of other systems to help assist in it this mission like an ESM (Electronic Surveillance Measures) system, FLIR (Forward Looking InfraRed) system to track ships at night as well as a sophisticated SRS (Sonobouy Reference System). In addition it contained Link 11 which was a data-link system that allowed relaying of information on the aircraft's display systems to any ship or shore station on areal-time basis. Man, this plane could do it all.

If it sounds as if I know a lot about the Viking it is because Inot only maintained the avionics systems but also taught them. This all past history as these systems have been removed from extant Vikings. It has been deemed that shore based ASW (P-3 Orions) is all that is really needed now that the former Soviet Union is no longer a threat. After having been upgraded toS-3B configuration with improved systems, the Viking now does aerial tanking with a buddy tank as well as just normal eyeball recce. Ho Hum. 

Five early Vikings were converted to COD aircraft, one was converted to a KS-3 and because no need was seen for a tanker, converted to aUS-3 COD, and an additional 12 (or was it 16) were converted to ES-3As to replace the EA-3B Skywarrior as a carrier-borne ELINT platform. All the ES-3 are now in mothballs after only 8 years of service as they were no longer deemed needed. Because of the usefulness of the platform, there was talk about reopening the S-3 production line, but that was shelved because of monetary concerns. Again, the USN didn't buy enough of a plane that had tremendous 

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