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Second VA-85 (U.S. Navy)
Attack Squadron 85 or VA-85 was a long-lived Attack Squadron of the U.S. Navy. It was called to active duty as U.S. Navy Reserve squadron VA-859 on 1 February 1951 and redesignated VA-85 on 4 February 1953. It was disestablished on 30 September 1994, over 40 years later. The squadron's nickname from 1958-1994 was the ''Black Falcons''. It was the second squadron to be designated VA-85, the first VA-85 was disestablished on 29 November 1949. History * May 1958: As part of an Atlantic Fleet training exercise (LANTRAEX 1-58), two of the squadron's AD-6 Skyraiders, flown by Lieutenant (jg)s Strang and Woods, flew nonstop from , operating off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, to Naval Air Station North Island. The flight was conducted below 1000 feet to demonstrate the low level and long range capability of the squadron. Two days later the aircraft returned, nonstop, to ''Forrestal''. * 5 February 1963: The squadron's commanding officer, Commander C. H. Mundt, was killed in an a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grumman A-6 Intruder
The Grumman A-6 Intruder is an American twinjet all-weather attack aircraft developed and manufactured by American aircraft company Grumman Aerospace and operated by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. It was designed in response to a 1957 requirement issued by the Bureau of Aeronautics for an all-weather attack aircraft for Navy long-range interdiction missions and with short takeoff and landing (STOL) capability for Marine close air support. It was to replace the piston-engined Douglas A-1 Skyraider. The requirement allowed one or two engines, either turbojet or turboprop. The winning proposal from Grumman used two Pratt & Whitney J52 turbojet engines. The Intruder was the first Navy aircraft with an integrated airframe and weapons system. Operated by a crew of two in a side-by-side seating configuration, the workload was divided between the pilot and weapons officer (bombardier/navigator (BN)). In addition to conventional munitions, it could also carry nuclear weap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Vietnam
North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed from 1945 to 1976 and was recognized in 1954. Both the North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese states ceased to exist when they unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. During the August Revolution following World War II, Vietnamese communist revolutionary Hồ Chí Minh, leader of the Việt Minh Front, declared independence on 2 September 1945, announcing the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The Việt Minh ("League for the Independence of Vietnam"), led by communists, was created in 1941 and designed to appeal to a wider population than the Indochinese Communist Party could command. From the very beginning, the DRV regime sought to consolidate power by purging other nationalist movements. Meanwhile, France moved ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harpoon Missile
The Harpoon is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile manufactured by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing Defense, Space & Security). The AGM-84E Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM) and later AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER (Standoff Land Attack Missile – Expanded Response) are cruise missile variants. The regular Harpoon uses active radar homing and flies just above the water to evade defenses. The missile can be launched from: * Fixed-wing aircraft (the AGM-84, without the solid-fuel rocket booster) * Surface ships (the RGM-84, fitted with a solid-fuel rocket booster that detaches when expended, to allow the missile's main turbojet to maintain flight) * Submarines (the UGM-84, fitted with a solid-fuel rocket booster and encapsulated in a container to enable submerged launch through a torpedo tube); * Coastal defense batteries, from which it would be fired with a solid-fuel rocket booster. Development In 1965, the United States Navy began studies for a missile in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Combattante IIa-class Fast Attack Craft
The La Combattante IIa fast attack craft is a class of fast attack craft originally built for the German Navy as Type 148 . They were later transferred to the Hellenic Navy and the class was renamed Combattante IIa, as with similar French made ships. All the ships were under mid-life updates in 1980s. Two vessels in the class, P-74 and P-75, were fitted with RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles and a new ESM was fitted after transfer. A version called the ''Beir Grassa'' class, of which 10 were built and 8 were operational as of 1995, were used by the Libyan Navy. One had been sunk and another disabled during a 1986 confrontation with US forces. Iran ordered 12 ships of the same class (known in Iran as ''Kaman'' class), nine of which were delivered in 1977 and 1978, and three of which were delayed until 1981 as a result of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The was sunk during Operation Morvarid in 1980, while was sunk by during Operation Praying Mantis Operation Praying Manti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CBU-100 Cluster Bomb
The CBU-100 Cluster Bomb (also called the Mk-20 Rockeye II) is an American cluster bomb which is employed primarily in an anti-tank mode. It weighs 222 kg (490 lbs) and carries 247 ''Mk 118 Mod 1 bomblets''. The anti-tank cluster bomb is an air-launched, conventional free-fall weapon. The Mk 20, CBU-99, and CBU-100 are used against armored vehicles. Design When the Mk 20 bomb cluster is released from the aircraft, the arming wires (primary and/or optional arming) are pulled sufficiently to arm the Mk 339 fuze (and recently the FMU-140 fuze) and release the fins. The positive armed fin release arming wire frees the fin release band, and the movable fins snap open by spring-force. Functioning of the fuze initiates the linear shaped charges in the dispenser which cut the dispenser case in half and disperse the bombs/bomblets. When the Mk 339 Mod 1 primary fuse arming wire is pulled, the fuze will function 1.2 seconds after the arming wire has been extracted. If the pilo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gulf Of Sidra
The Gulf of Sidra ( ar, خليج السدرة, Khalij as-Sidra, also known as the Gulf of Sirte ( ar, خليج سرت, Khalij Surt, is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea on the northern coast of Libya, named after the oil port of Sidra, Libya, Sidra or the city of Sirte. It was also historically known as the Great Sirte or Greater Syrtis ( la, Syrtis Major; grc, Σύρτις μεγάλη; contrasting with Syrtis Minor on the coast of Tunisia). Geography The Gulf of Sidra or Sirte has been a major center for tuna fishing in the Mediterranean for centuries. It gives its name to the city of Sirte situated on its western side. The gulf measures from the promontory of Boreum (now Ras Teyonas) on the East side to the promontory of Cephalae (Ras Kasr Hamet) on the West. The greatest extension of the gulf inland is land inward and occupies an area of 57,000 square kilometres. History Ancient history Syrtis is referred to in the New Testament of the Bible, where Luke rela ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naval Air Station Sigonella
Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella is an Italian Air Force base ('' it, Aeroporto "Cosimo Di Palma" di Sigonella''), and a U.S. Navy installation at Italian Air Force Base Sigonella in Sicily, Italy. The whole NAS is a tenant of the Italian Air Force, which has the military and the administrative control. It serves as an Italian base for the 41º Stormo Antisom (41st Antisubmarine Warfare Wing). NAS Sigonella acts also as landlord to more than 40 other U.S. commands and activities. It is located west and south of the city of Catania, and some south of Mount Etna. The NAS is located in the western part of the large airport structure, while the Italian military base is located in the eastern part. Because of its location near the center of the Mediterranean Sea, NASSIG is well placed to support operations by the U.S. 6th Fleet, other U.S. military units, and U.S. allies and coalition partners. Among the aircraft that fly from this island base are Italian Air Force ATR 72MP ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leon Klinghoffer
Leon Klinghoffer (September 24, 1916 – October 8, 1985) was an American man who was shot, killed and thrown overboard from the cruise ship ''Achille Lauro'' by members of the Palestinian Liberation Front who hijacked the ship in 1985. Personal life Klinghoffer grew up on Suffolk Street in the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City. Among his close friends was Jack Kirby, who became a major figure in the history of comic books. Klinghoffer married Marilyn (born Windwehr), the daughter of a haberdasher, in September 1949. The couple had two daughters. Klinghoffer suffered two strokes later in his life that left him in a wheelchair.Associated Press.'Vacation of a Lifetime' Ends in Tragedy : Klinghoffer: Life of Hard Work, Giving" ''Los Angeles Times''. 13 October 1985. Retrieved 7 October 2015. Career While he was growing up, Klinghoffer worked in his family's hardware store, Klinghoffer Supply Company. In 1942, he joined the Army Air Force and was trained as a navig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achille Lauro Hijacking
The ''Achille Lauro'' hijacking took place on 7 October 1985, when the Italian ocean liner MS ''Achille Lauro'' was hijacked by four men representing the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) off the coast of Egypt, as she was sailing from Alexandria to Ashdod, Israel. A 69-year-old Jewish American man in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer, was murdered by the hijackers and thrown overboard. The hijacking sparked the "Sigonella Crisis". Background Palestine Liberation Organization After the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was driven by Israel out of Jordan in 1970 and Southern Lebanon and Beirut in 1978 and 1982, respectively, PLO guerrillas had dispersed (under international guarantees of safety) to Tunisia, Yemen, Southern Yemen, Algeria, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and the Sudan. Meanwhile, in Lebanon, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat had run into problems with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, who in 1983 sought to wrest effective control of the group from him by backing a mutiny wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobby Goodman
Robert O. Goodman (born 30 November 1956) is a former United States Navy bombardier–navigator. He was shot down in his A-6 Intruder over Lebanon on 4 December 1983. Captured upon ejection from his stricken plane, he was held captive for 30 days. His release on 3 January 1984 was facilitated by Jesse Jackson. Background In October 1983, aircraft carrier was diverted to Beirut, Lebanon, from her planned Indian Ocean deployment, after the Beirut barracks bombing killed 241 US military personnel of the Multinational Force in Lebanon. The ship spent the rest of that year and early 1984 patrolling the region. On 4 December, in response to two U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft having been fired upon the previous day, ten A-6 Intruders of VA-85 ''Black Falcons'' along with A-6 and A-7 Corsair aircraft from USS ''Independence'' (CV-62) took part in a bombing raid over Beirut. Capture While on a bombing mission, the two-man crew from VA-85 was hit by an infrared homing miss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
F-14
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic aircraft, supersonic, twinjet, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program after the collapse of the General Dynamics–Grumman F-111B, General Dynamics-Grumman F-111B project. The F-14 was the first of the American Teen Series fighters, which were designed incorporating aerial warfare, air combat experience against Mikoyan, MiG fighters during the Vietnam War. The F-14 first flew on 21 December 1970 and made its first deployment in 1974 with the U.S. Navy aboard , replacing the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. The F-14 served as the U.S. Navy's primary maritime air superiority fighter, fleet defense interceptor aircraft, interceptor, and tactical aerial reconnaissance platform into the 2000s. The Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) pod system was added in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Multinational Force In Lebanon
The Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF) was an international peacekeeping force created in August 1982 following a 1981 U.S.-brokered ceasefire between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel to end their involvement in the conflict between Lebanon's pro-government and pro- Syrian factions. The ceasefire held until June 3, 1982 when the Abu Nidal Organization attempted to assassinate Shlomo Argov, Israel's ambassador to London. Israel blamed the PLO and three days later invaded Lebanon. West Beirut was besieged for seven weeks before the PLO acceded to a new agreement for their withdrawal. The agreement provided for the deployment of a Multinational Force to assist the Lebanese Armed Forces in evacuating the PLO, Syrian forces and other foreign combatants involved in Lebanon's civil war. The four-nation MNF was created as an interposition force meant to oversee the peaceful withdrawal of the PLO. The participants included the U.S. Multinational Force (U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
