The Common Support Aircraft
Current naval mission support aircraft (S-3, E-2, ES-3, and C-2) will reach the end of their operational service lives between 2010 and 2015. For many airframes, mission obsolescence may occur sooner. A Naval Aviation Affordability Study, concluded in May 1993, determined that the more restrictive budgets require a "neckdown" in the types of airframes, reduced fly away unit costs, and reduced life cycle costs.
The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) plans to initiate a two-year study beginning in FY-96 to determine requirements and feasibility of using a common airframe to support many mission areas now performed by multiple platforms. The Common Support Aircraft (CSA) study will examine the possibility of combining the mission functions shown in the above figure into a single airframe. The first year is devoted to collecting fleet inputs from the support aircraft communities and to performing unit and mission level analysis on those requirements. The second year is devoted to the development of a notional aircraft. The CNO study will develop a Mission Needs Statement (MNS) for the Common Support Aircraft. The MNS will outline the future aircraft early warning (AEW), anti-submarine warfare (ASW), anti-surface warfare (ASuW), mine warfare (MIW), maritime and overland surveillance, C41, tactical intelligence, and tanking and logistics missions from a carrier through the mid-21st century. The MNS will discuss the technical feasibility and economic benefits of a common airframe, and will determine the number of platforms of specific mission configurations to be procured.
The results of the ongoing CVP study will feed into the CSA initiative. It is anticipated that all future initiatives such as CSA may use those CVP technologies that are mature and offer significant cost advantages. The CVP study will assess the readiness and maturing of this technology.
