1994-Contin ued

3 March Peleli u ARG joined the Inchon ARG off the

coast of Somalia to support the withdrawal of U.S.

troops from Somalia.

3 March The last A-6E Intruder to receive a compos-

ite wing at Naval Aviation Depot, Norfolk, Va., marked

the end of the A-6 Composite Rewing Program. The

Navy had begun the program in 1990 to replace the

metal wings normally used on the aircraft as they

reached the end of their fatigue life.

7 March Sixty-three women received orders to

Dwight D. Eisenhower-the first combat ship to have

women permanently assigned.

17 March The X-31 Enhanced Fighter Maneuver-abil-

ity aircraft flew at Mach 1.2 using thrust vectoring

vanes instead of its tail surfaces for control. This flight

was a significant "first" in aviation history.

19 March A T-45 Goshawk, the first U.S. Navy train-

ing jet equipped with a digital cockpit (Cockpit-21),

was flown by an experimental test pilot in an inaugu-

ral flight from McDonnell Douglas facilities in St.

Louis, Mo.

24 March The last American military transport ship

to depart Somalia, Training Ship Empire State, left

Modgadishu while Peleliu AGR remained off the coast

in support of UN operations in Somalia.

31 March The popular name Peregrine was assigned

to the BQM-145A medium-range unmanned aerial

vehicle.

1 April The first operational flight of the Airborne

Multisensor Pod System took place at Naval Air

Warfare Center Weapons Division, Point Mugu, Calif.

28 April A Saratoga-based F/ A-18 Hornet crashed in

the Adriatic Sea during takeoff from the carrier, killing

the pilot. The death was the first among the NATO al-

lies conducting air operations in support of Bosnia.

29 April The U.S. Navy Penguin (AGM-119B) missile

MK-2 Mod 7 reached initial operational capability

(IOC) and was launched for the first time by a fleet

unit on 25 June when an SH-60B from Hewitt (DD

966) fired an operational missile. Penguin is a short-

range, inertially guided antiship missile system. HSL-51

Det 6 accomplished the firing at the Pacific Missile

Range Facility off the coast of Hawaii as part of RIM-

PAC 94 exercises.

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

389

2 May Two F-14B Tomcats from VF-I03 aboard

Saratoga delivered three GB U-16 (Paveway II) laser-

guided bombs to direct hits at Capo Frasca Target

Complex, Sardinia, Italy. This was the first time the F-

14 had accomplished this feat.

5 May The House Armed Services Committee ap-

proved $3.65 billion for the then-unnamed aircraft car-

rier CVN 76 and advance procurement for the large-

deck amphibious ship LHD 7 as part of its $263.3

billion defense budget for 1995. CVN 76 will become

the Navy's twelfth aircraft carrier supported by the

Department of Defense's Bottom-Up Review.

16-17 May Russian pilots tested nine F/A-18 Navy

fighter jets at Patuxent River, Md., while U.S. Navy

pilots sat in the back seat.

5-6 June George Washington hosted the nation's

top leaders, including President William Clinton and

First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton, on the occasion of

the 50th anniversary of D-Day. George Washington

was first off the coast of Portsmouth, England, and

then at sea off the invasion beaches of Omaha and

Utah and nearby Pointe du Hoc, where Americans

landed on D-Day.

28 June The Georgia-built P-3C Orion rolled out of

the assembly hangar at Lockheed Aeronautical Systems

Company in Marietta marking the "official" return to

production of the maritime patrol aircraft. The aircraft

were for the Republic of Korea.

1 July A ceremony marked the closing of NAS

Moffett Field, Calif. The air station was commissioned

originally as NAS Sunnyvale in 1933. It was the home

port of the Navy's dirigible Macon (ZRS-5). After

Macon went down in a storm off Point Sur in 1935, the

Navy transferred NAS Sunnyvale to the U.S. Army. The

station reverted to the Navy in 1942 and was redesig-

nated NAS Moffett Field, in honor of Rear Admiral W.

A. Moffett, who was killed in the crash of the dirigible

Akron (ZRS-4) in 1933.

1 July The schedule for the Joint Primary Aircraft

Training System (JPATS) flight evaluation at Wright-

Patterson AFB, Ohio, was established. Aircraft from

various manufacturers would be evaluated from 24 July

through 8 October. JPATS would replace the T-34C and

T-37B with a common training system, including air-

craft academics and simulators.

6 July Inchon Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) de-

parted Norfolk, Va., en route to the Caribbean waters

off the coast of Haiti. The four-ship ARG would aug-