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UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

1971-Continued

aircraft were particularly effective in attacking truck

traffic, the enemy having put a seasonally high num-

ber of trucks on the road, averaging close to 1,000 per

day.

4 February A P-3C, at the Naval Air Test Center,

Patuxent River, Md., with Commander Donald H.

Lilienthal as Plane Commander, set a world record for

its class of 45,018.2 feet altitude in horizontal flight.

5 February The Navy announced the first successful

test-firing of a Condor air-to-surface missile armed

with a live warhead. The missile, which was fired from

an A-6 Intruder jet aircraft and guided by television,

scored a direct hit on a target ship, which was out of

sight from the launching aircraft.

8 February Commander Donald H. Lilienthal and

crew in their P-3C completed the assault on world

records for unlimited weight turboprop planes, estab-

lishing an altitude record of 46,214.5 feet, and time-to-

climb records of 3,000 meters in 2 minutes 51.7 sec-

onds; 6,000 meters in 5 minutes 46.3 seconds; 9,000

meters in 10 minutes 26.1 seconds; and 12,000 meters

in 19 minutes 42.2 seconds.

17 February The Weapons Systems Explosive Safety

Review Board approved service use of the pyrotechnic

seeding device, WMU-lIB. This unit, consisting of a

silver iodide (catalyst) generator, became the first

weather modification unit released for production and

general use by the Navy. Later that year this device

was used over the island of Okinawa to enhance rain-

fall and thus replenish the island's water reserves.

24 February The Navy disclosed that an electronic

eavesdropper, developed at the Naval Air

Development Center, Warminster, Pa., had been used

in Southeast Asia since June 1967. Called the

Acoubuoy, it was dropped along trails and broadcast-

ed passing sounds to aircraft up to 20 miles away.

28 February In Vietnam during the month, two car-

riers remained on station throughout the period as

strike sorties rose to an average of 122 per day

because of a 40 percent increase in enemy truck

movements from the previous month, averaging more

than 1,400 a day. A program was extended to A-7 air-

craft night all-weather seeding missions heretofore

flown exclusively by the A-6. The computer release of

flares over targeted road segments was followed by

visual delivery of seeds which allowed the enemy

minimal chances of spotting the emplaced mine fields.

9 March Construction began on the joint U.S./U.K.

naval air and radio communications station located on

the Indian Ocean atoll of Diego Garcia. Later in the

month, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 40, sup-

ported by U.S. surface vessels, commenced the major

construction effort.

10 March On Yankee Station, Ranger and Kitty

Hawk set a record of 233 strike sorties for one day

and went on during the ensuing six-day period to

mark up a strike effectiveness record that exceeded

record performances by TF-77 during the previous

three-year period.

16 March The first SH-2D LAMPS (Light Airborne

Multi-Purpose System) helicopter test flight took place

at Kaman's Bloomfield, Conn., facility. This flight fol-

lowed testing aboard Sims (DE 1059) to determine

deck strength for helicopter operations. It was

announced later in the month that 115 H-2 helicopters

would be committed to the LAMPS program. The

LAMPS system was configured to extend the range of

ASW and ASMD on destroyers, frigates, and destroyer

escorts as an airborne extension of the ships' own

detection systems.

29 March The first active AIM-9G missile was

launched from an NUH-2H helicopter by the Weapons

System Test Division of NATC.

31 March In Vietnam, strike sorties launched by the

carriers serving on Yankee Station during the month

totaled 4,535 of which 4,479 were sorties delivering

ordnance. These figures were up by 1,074 and 1,065,

respectively, from the previous month. Over 680

Acoubuoy seed and interdiction package missions

were flown during the month with unknown results.

Approximately 75 percent of the interdiction packages,

however, obtained one or more road cuts while

implanting Acoubuoy seeds.

1 April HM-12, the Navy's first helicopter squadron

devoted exclusively to mine countermeasures, was

established at NAS Norfolk, Va. The mission of HM-12

was to remove or eliminate enemy mines from

sealanes and amphibious operating areas. To accom-

plish this task HM-12 helicopters towed specially

designed mechanical magnetic and acoustic

mines weeping equipment which would activate the

enemy mines, thereby eliminating them as a threat to

future operations in the area. HM-12 employed CH-

53A Sea Stallions until they received the Sikorsky RH-

53D built specifically for mine countermeasures.