Word: 6b
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Meanwhile, the carriers Coral Sea and America, stationed in the midMediterranean, were steaming toward the coast of Libya. Between 5:20 and 6:20 p.m., close to 100 aircraft catapulted off their decks--18 A-6 and A-7 strike and strike-support craft, six F/A-18 fighters, 14 EA-6B electronic jamming planes and a variety of support craft. As the Air Force's F-111 squadron rounded the tip of Tunisia, it was skillfully integrated into the Navy's airborne armada by a single Air Force officer providing coordination from an airborne tanker...
...6B Prowler helped divert the Libyan-fired SA-5 Gammon missiles that touched off the skirmishing. After the incoming missiles were detected, the Prowler's five underwing jamming devices mimicked the radar signature of U.S. aircraft, creating dozens of false targets at a safe distance from U.S. ships. Meanwhile, the U.S.S. Ticonderoga's advanced electronic Aegis system scanned the gulf for enemy planes...
...terrific din of pumps and engines and catapults. The ship was headed into a balmy wind, and a soft mist hung in the night air. Thirteen of the carrier's jets were still out on a routine training run. The pilot of one, an electronic radar-jamming EA-6B Prowler, had his plane a scant two miles aft of the Nimitz, and banked into position for a final approach. But the plane veered critically and crashed into a string of other aircraft packed close together on the carrier's flight deck. Within seconds, the three Marine officers flying...
Official inquiries into the cause of the crash could take as long as six months, and the investigators will lack some evidence in their search for explanations: hours after the accident, the EA-6B and the two unsalvageable F-14s were pushed overboard. Captain John Batzler, the Nimitz's commanding officer, was authorized to jettison the three irreparable aircraft by Vice Admiral George E.R. Kinnear, Commander of Naval Air Forces Atlantic, who flew to the Nimitz hours after the crash. The wrecked fighters still carried their loads of unexploded missiles and ammunition, which posed a danger to ship...