Description

The final decade of the Cold War saw unprecedented peacetime expansion of the US Navy, including Naval Aviation. President Reagan’s plan for a 600-ship Navy resulted in stepped-up construction of Nimitz class supercarriers and the aircraft to operate from them, including new types like the F/A-18 Hornet. Naval aviation was highly diverse, from carrier-borne F-14 Tomcats to P-3 Orions keeping vigil over the world’s oceans, SH-2 Seasprites operating from tiny landing pads on warships in heaving seas, and land-based adversaries playing the opposing force ‘bad guys’ during training.