159-722: The Lockheed P-2 Neptune (designated P2V by the United States Navy prior to September 1962) is a maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft. It was developed for the US Navy by Lockheed to replace the Lockheed PV-1 Ventura and PV-2 Harpoon , and was replaced in turn by the Lockheed P-3 Orion . Designed as a land-based aircraft, the Neptune never made a carrier landing, but
318-524: A gun-type design in which two sub-critical masses would be brought together by firing a "bullet" into a "target". Richard C. Tolman suggested an implosion-type nuclear weapon , but the proposal attracted little interest. The feasibility of a plutonium bomb was questioned in 1942. Wallace Akers , the director of the British " Tube Alloys " project, told James Bryant Conant on 14 November that James Chadwick had "concluded that plutonium might not be
477-685: A " black op " unit, the 34th Squadron, better known as the Black Bat Squadron , of the Republic of China Air Force ; these were painted in ROCAF markings. The ROCAF P2V-7U/RB-69A's mission was to conduct low-level penetration flights into mainland China to conduct ELINT/ferret missions including mapping out China's air defense networks, inserting agents via airdrop, and dropping leaflets and supplies. The agreement for plausible deniability between US and Republic of China (ROC) governments meant
636-515: A "California Parachute" was approved, a cubical open-rear tail box outer surface with eight radial fins inside of it, four angled at 45 degrees and four perpendicular to the line of fall holding the outer square-fin box to the bomb's rear end. In drop tests in early weeks, the Fat Man missed its target by an average of 1,857 feet (566 m), but this was halved by June as the bombardiers became more proficient with it. The early Y-1222 model Fat Man
795-411: A 0.125-inch-thick (3.2 mm) shell of boron-impregnated plastic. The plastic shell had a 5-inch-diameter (130 mm) cylindrical hole running through it, like the hole in a cored apple, in order to allow insertion of the pit as late as possible. The missing tamper cylinder containing the pit could be slipped in through a hole in the surrounding 18.5-inch-diameter (470 mm) aluminum pusher. The pit
954-520: A 14-month circumnavigation of the world. Ordered by President Theodore Roosevelt , it was a mission designed to demonstrate the Navy's capability to extend to the global theater. By 1911, the U.S. had begun building the super-dreadnoughts at a pace to eventually become competitive with Britain. The 1911 also saw the first naval aircraft with the navy which would lead to the informal establishment of United States Naval Flying Corps to protect shore bases. It
1113-647: A change in their rating from their previous rating (i.e., MMCM) to CMDCM. The stars for Command Master Chief are silver, while stars for Fleet, and gold stars for Force. Additionally, CMCs wear a badge, worn on their left breast pocket, denoting their title (Command/Fleet/Force). Insignia and badges of the United States Navy are military "badges" issued by the Department of the Navy to naval service members who achieve certain qualifications and accomplishments while serving on both active and reserve duty in
1272-655: A faster assembly of fissile material than was possible with the gun method, but greatly reduce the amount of material required because of the resulting higher density. The idea that, under such pressures, the plutonium metal would be compressed came from Teller, whose knowledge of how dense metals behaved under heavy pressure was influenced by his pre-war theoretical studies of the Earth's core with George Gamow . The prospect of more-efficient nuclear weapons impressed Oppenheimer, Teller, and Hans Bethe , but they decided that an expert on explosives would be required. Kistiakowsky's name
1431-724: A former student of Oppenheimer's who worked on the Manhattan Project. He chose them based on their design shapes; the Thin Man was a very long device, and the name came from the Dashiell Hammett detective novel The Thin Man and series of movies . The Fat Man was round and fat and was named after Sydney Greenstreet 's character in Hammett's The Maltese Falcon . The Little Boy uranium gun-type design came later and
1590-466: A formidable force in the years prior to World War II , with battleship production being restarted in 1937, commencing with USS North Carolina (BB-55) . Though ultimately unsuccessful, Japan tried to neutralize this strategic threat with the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Following American entry into the war , the U.S. Navy grew tremendously as the United States
1749-651: A frequent actor in American foreign and military policy. The United States Navy is part of the Department of the Navy , alongside the United States Marine Corps , which is its coequal sister service. The Department of the Navy is headed by the civilian secretary of the Navy . The Department of the Navy is itself a military department of the Department of Defense , which is headed by the secretary of defense . The chief of naval operations (CNO)
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#17327986062181908-632: A gun-type bomb using plutonium was agreed at a meeting in Los Alamos on 17 July 1944. All gun-type work in the Manhattan Project was re-directed towards the Little Boy, enriched uranium gun design, and the Los Alamos Laboratory was reorganized with almost all of the research focused on the problems of implosion for the Fat Man bomb. The idea of using shaped charges as three-dimensional explosive lenses came from James L. Tuck and
2067-533: A gunship, as an overland reconnaissance and sensor deployment aircraft, and in its traditional role as a maritime patrol aircraft. The Neptune was also utilized by the US Army's 1st Radio Research Company (Aviation), call sign "Crazy Cat", based at Cam Ranh Air Base in South Vietnam, as an electronic "ferret" aircraft intercepting low-powered tactical voice and morse code radio signals. The US Army operated
2226-436: A low level electronic reconnaissance from Da Nang Air Base , flying over Thanh Hóa Province on 20 August 1963 to investigate an air resupply drop zone that turned out to be a trap for a ROCAF C-123B airdrop mission 10 days earlier due to the air-inserted agents having been captured and turned. Next year, an air defense radar mapping mission was also flown by 34th Squadron's RB-69A/P2V-7U aircraft into North Vietnam and Laos on
2385-642: A major effect on naval planning is the Pivot to East Asia . In response, the Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus stated in 2015 that 60 percent of the total U.S. fleet will be deployed to the Pacific by 2020. The Navy's most recent 30-year shipbuilding plan, published in 2016, calls for a future fleet of 350 ships to meet the challenges of an increasingly competitive international environment. A provision of
2544-635: A national navy was debated in the Second Continental Congress . Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, and make it easier to seek support from foreign countries. Detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy , then the world's preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned
2703-502: A navy able to reform those enemies to mankind or crush them into non-existence. Naval power . . . is the natural defense of the United States. The Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War , Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia . The rationale for establishing
2862-643: A number of unique capabilities, including Military Sealift Command , Naval Expeditionary Combat Command , and Naval Information Forces . The United States Navy has seven active numbered fleets – Second , Third , Fifth , Sixth , Seventh and Tenth Fleets are each led by a vice admiral , and the Fourth Fleet is led by a rear admiral . These seven fleets are further grouped under Fleet Forces Command (the former Atlantic Fleet), Pacific Fleet, Naval Forces Europe-Africa, and Naval Forces Central Command, whose commander also doubles as Commander Fifth Fleet;
3021-471: A practical fissionable material for weapons because of impurities". Conant consulted Ernest Lawrence and Arthur Compton , who acknowledged that their scientists at Berkeley and Chicago, respectively, knew about the problem, but they could offer no ready solution. Conant informed Manhattan Project director Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves Jr. , who in turn assembled a special committee consisting of Lawrence, Compton, Oppenheimer, and McMillan to examine
3180-867: A quarter of whom are in ready reserve. Of those on active duty, more than eighty percent are enlisted sailors and around fifteen percent are commissioned officers ; the rest are midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy and midshipmen of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps at over 180 universities around the country and officer candidates at the Navy's Officer Candidate School . Enlisted sailors complete basic military training at boot camp and then are sent to complete training for their individual careers . Sailors prove they have mastered skills and deserve responsibilities by completing Personnel Qualification Standards (PQS) tasks and examinations. Among
3339-607: A radar approach. At the last minute, however, bombardier Captain Kermit K. Beahan found a hole in the clouds. The Fat Man was dropped and exploded at 11:02 local time, following a 43-second free-fall, at an altitude of about 1,650 feet (500 m). There was poor visibility due to cloud cover, and the bomb missed its intended detonation point by almost two miles, so the damage was somewhat less extensive than that in Hiroshima. An estimated 35,000–40,000 people were killed outright by
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#17327986062183498-411: A ring with a triangular cross-section between them to keep them aligned and prevent jets forming. As plutonium was found to corrode readily, the sphere was coated with nickel. The size of the bomb was constrained by the available aircraft, which were investigated for suitability by Norman Foster Ramsey . The only Allied aircraft considered capable of carrying the Fat Man without major modification were
3657-467: A secret tour of the United States. Air Forces personnel used the code names over the phone to make it sound as though they were modifying a plane for Roosevelt and Churchill. Neddermeyer discarded Serber and Tolman's initial concept of implosion as assembling a series of pieces in favor of one in which a hollow sphere was imploded by an explosive shell. He was assisted in this work by Hugh Bradner , Charles Critchfield , and John Streib. L. T. E. Thompson
3816-465: A senior non-commissioned officer in the other services, and must have a minimum 14 years in service. Sailors in pay grades E-1 through E-3 are considered to be in apprenticeships. They are divided into five definable groups, with colored group rate marks designating the group to which they belong: Seaman, Fireman, Airman, Constructionman, and Hospitalman. E-4 to E-6 are non-commissioned officers (NCOs), and are specifically called Petty officers in
3975-449: A service life of 15,000 hours. Neptune Aviation Services proposes to replace them with British Aerospace 146 aircraft, which have an estimated service life of 80,000 hours and carry upwards of 3,000 US gal (11,000 L; 2,500 imp gal) of retardant. The third production P2V-1 was chosen for a record-setting mission, ostensibly to test crew endurance and long-range navigation but also for publicity purposes: to display
4134-497: A service member may choose to further their career by becoming a Command Master Chief Petty Officer (CMC). A CMC is considered to be the senior-most enlisted service member within a command, and is the special assistant to the Commanding Officer in all matters pertaining to the health, welfare, job satisfaction, morale, use, advancement and training of the command's enlisted personnel. CMCs can be Command level (within
4293-404: A single unit, such as a ship or shore station), Fleet level (squadrons consisting of multiple operational units, headed by a flag officer or commodore), or Force level (consisting of a separate community within the Navy, such as Subsurface, Air, Reserves). CMC insignia are similar to the insignia for Master Chief, except that the rating symbol is replaced by an inverted five-point star, reflecting
4452-478: A small number were converted and deployed as carrier-launched (using JATO assist), stop-gap nuclear bombers that would have to land on shore or ditch. The type was successful in export, and saw service with several armed forces. Development of a new land-based patrol bomber began early in World War II, with design work starting at Lockheed's Vega subsidiary as a private venture on 6 December 1941. At first,
4611-453: A solid subcritical sphere of plutonium could be compressed to a critical state, greatly simplifying the task, since earlier efforts had attempted the more-difficult compression of a hollow spherical shell. After Christy's report, the solid-plutonium core weapon was referred to as the " Christy Gadget ". The task of the metallurgists was to determine how to cast plutonium into a sphere. The difficulties became apparent when attempts to measure
4770-556: A stop-gap modern maritime patrol aircraft until sufficient numbers of the Avro Shackleton could enter service. The Neptunes were used from between 1952 and March 1957, being used for airborne early warning experiments as well as for maritime patrol. In Australia, the Netherlands, and the US Navy, its tasks were taken over by the larger and more capable P-3 Orion, and by the 1970s, it was in use only by patrol squadrons in
4929-466: A storm and asked if the bomb could be made ready by 9 August. Parsons agreed to try to do so. Fat Man F31 was assembled on Tinian by Project Alberta personnel, and the physics package was fully assembled and wired. It was placed inside its ellipsoidal aerodynamic bombshell, which was painted mustard yellow, and wheeled out, where it was signed by nearly 60 people, including Purnell, Brigadier General Thomas F. Farrell , and Parsons. The acronym "JANCFU"
Lockheed P-2 Neptune - Misplaced Pages Continue
5088-712: A strike could be mounted. In March 1948, during the Berlin Blockade , all the assembly teams were in Eniwetok for the Operation Sandstone test, and the military teams were not yet qualified to assemble atomic weapons. In June 1948, General Omar Bradley , Major General Alfred Gruenther and Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe visited Sandia and Los Alamos to be shown the "special requirements" of atomic weapons. Gruenther asked Brigadier General Kenneth Nichols (hosting): "When are you going to show us
5247-500: A very large aircraft to carry them. The US Navy Bureau of Ordnance built 25 outdated but more compact Little Boy nuclear bomb designs to be used in the smaller bomb bay of the P2V Neptune. There was enough fissionable material available by 1948 to build ten complete uranium projectiles and targets, although there were only enough initiators to complete six. The U.S. Navy improvised a carrier-based nuclear strike aircraft by modifying
5406-721: Is a distinct, separate service branch with its own uniformed service chief – the Commandant of the Marine Corps, a four-star general. The Marine Corps depends on the Navy for medical support (dentists, doctors , nurses, medical technicians known as corpsmen ) and religious support (chaplains). Thus, Navy officers and enlisted sailors fulfill these roles. When attached to Marine Corps units deployed to an operational environment they generally wear Marine camouflage uniforms, but otherwise, they wear Navy dress uniforms unless they opt to conform to Marine Corps grooming standards. In
5565-729: Is immediately under and reports to the Secretary of the Navy. At the same time, the Chief of Naval Operations is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , which is the second-highest deliberative body of the armed forces after the United States National Security Council , although it plays only an advisory role to the President and does not nominally form part of the chain of command . The Secretary of
5724-420: Is the most senior Navy officer serving in the Department of the Navy. To recruit, train, equip, and organize to deliver combat ready Naval forces to win conflicts and wars while maintaining security and deterrence through sustained forward presence. The U.S. Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States . The Navy's three primary areas of responsibility: U.S. Navy training manuals state that
5883-596: The 1966 Palomares B-52 crash incident and the subsequent search for missing hydrogen bombs, and Task Force 71 of the Seventh Fleet's operation in search for Korean Air Lines Flight 007 , shot down by the Soviets on 1 September 1983. The U.S. Navy continues to be a major support to U.S. interests in the 21st century. Since the end of the Cold War, it has shifted its focus from preparations for large-scale war with
6042-950: The Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range in New Mexico . Two more were detonated during the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946, and some 120 were produced between 1947 and 1949, when it was superseded by the Mark 4 nuclear bomb . The Fat Man was retired in 1950. Robert Oppenheimer held conferences in Chicago in June 1942, and in Berkeley, California , in July, at which various engineers and physicists discussed nuclear bomb design issues. They chose
6201-662: The American Civil War , in which the Union had a distinct advantage over the Confederacy on the seas. A Union blockade on all major ports shut down exports and the coastal trade, but blockade runners provided a thin lifeline. The Brown-water navy components of the U.S. navy control of the river systems made internal travel difficult for Confederates and easy for the Union. The war saw ironclad warships in combat for
6360-594: The Battle of Okinawa . By 1943, the navy's size was larger than the combined fleets of all the other combatant nations in World War II. By war's end in 1945, the U.S. Navy had added hundreds of new ships, including 18 aircraft carriers and 8 battleships, and had over 70% of the world's total numbers and total tonnage of naval vessels of 1,000 tons or greater. At its peak, the U.S. Navy was operating 6,768 ships on V-J Day in August 1945. Doctrine had significantly shifted by
6519-900: The Bureau of Naval Personnel , the Office of Naval Research , the Office of Naval Intelligence , the United States Naval Academy , the Naval Safety Command , the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center , and the United States Naval Observatory . Official Navy websites list the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and the Chief of Naval Operations as part of the shore establishment, but these two entities effectively sit superior to
Lockheed P-2 Neptune - Misplaced Pages Continue
6678-759: The Continental Navy ) The United States Navy ( USN ) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States . It is the world's most powerful navy and the largest by tonnage, at 4.5 million tons in 2021 and in 2009 an estimated battle fleet tonnage that exceeded the next 13 navies combined. It has the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with 11 in service , one undergoing trials, two new carriers under construction, and six other carriers planned as of 2024. With 336,978 personnel on active duty and 101,583 in
6837-725: The Grand Slam , which was much longer but not as wide as the Fat Man. The only American bombers that could carry the Fat Man were the B-29 and the Convair B-36 . In November 1945, the Army Air Forces asked Los Alamos for 200 Fat Man bombs, but there were only two sets of plutonium cores and high-explosive assemblies at the time. The Army Air Forces wanted improvements to the design to make it easier to manufacture, assemble, handle, transport, and stockpile. The wartime Project W-47
6996-673: The Hanford Site and was dropped from the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Bockscar piloted by Major Charles Sweeney . The name Fat Man refers to the early design of the bomb because it had a wide, round shape. Fat Man was an implosion-type nuclear weapon with a solid plutonium core . The first of that type to be detonated was the Gadget in the Trinity nuclear test less than a month earlier on 16 July at
7155-726: The National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola . Lockheed produced seven main variants of the P2V. In addition, Kawasaki built the turboprop-powered P-2J in Japan. There are a few Neptunes that have been restored and are on display in museums and parks. Data from Combat Aircraft since 1945 General characteristics Performance Armament Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists United States Navy 13 October 1775 (249 years, 1 month) (as
7314-547: The Ready Reserve , the U.S. Navy is the third largest of the United States military service branches in terms of personnel. It has 299 deployable combat vessels and about 4,012 operational aircraft as of July 18, 2023. The United States Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy , which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. After suffering significant loss of goods and personnel at
7473-597: The Type 91 torpedoes released in the attack on Pearl Harbor , was destroyed in the blast. After the war, two Y-1561 Fat Man bombs were used in the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. The first was known as Gilda after Rita Hayworth 's character in the 1946 movie Gilda , and it was dropped by the B-29 Dave's Dream ; it missed its aim point by 710 yards (650 m). The second bomb
7632-439: The limited duty officer (LDO) in the Navy. Warrant officers perform duties that are directly related to their previous enlisted service and specialized training. This allows the Navy to capitalize on the experience of warrant officers without having to frequently transition them to other duty assignments for advancement. Most Navy warrant officers are accessed from the chief petty officer pay grades, E-7 through E-9, analogous to
7791-418: The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act called for expanding the naval fleet to 355 ships "as soon as practicable", but did not establish additional funding nor a timeline. The U.S. Navy falls under the administration of the Department of the Navy , under civilian leadership of the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV). The most senior naval officer is the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), a four-star admiral who
7950-520: The 34th Squadron's black op missions remain classified by the CIA—though a CIA internal draft history, Low-Level Technical Reconnaissance over Mainland China (1955–66) , reference CSHP-2.348, written in 1972 that covers CIA/ROCAF 34th Squadron's black op missions is known to exist. The CIA does not plan to declassify it until after 2022. During the Vietnam War , the Neptune was used by the US Navy as
8109-563: The Barbary pirates, blockaded the Barbary ports and executed attacks against the Barbary' fleets. The U.S. Navy saw substantial action in the War of 1812 , where it was victorious in eleven single-ship duels with the Royal Navy. It proved victorious in the Battle of Lake Erie and prevented the region from becoming a threat to American operations in the area. The result was a major victory for
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#17327986062188268-510: The British Avro Lancaster and the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress . At the time, the B-29 represented the epitome of bomber technology with significant advantages in maximum takeoff weight , range, speed, flight ceiling, and survivability. Without the availability of the B-29, dropping the bomb would likely have been impossible. However, this still constrained the bomb to a maximum length of 11 feet (3.4 m), width of 5 feet (1.5 m) and weight of 20,000 pounds (9,100 kg). Removing
8427-424: The CIA's own private fleet of covert ELINT/ferret aircraft. Later, to make up for P2V-7U/RB-69A operational losses, the CIA obtained and converted two existing US Navy P2V-7s, one in September 1962, and one in December 1964 to P2V-7U/RB-69A Phase VI standard, and also acquired an older P2V-5 from the US Navy as a training aircraft in 1963. Test flights were made by lead aircraft at Edwards AFB from 1955 to 1956, all
8586-722: The Canadian Forces in 1968, the Neptune was re-designated the CP122 and was officially retired two years later. Australia also acquired Neptunes to supplement and then replace the aging Avro Lincoln in the reconnaissance and anti-submarine role. The RAAF flew Neptunes from 1951 until 1978, at first with 11 Squadron (Pearce, WA) and then, from late 1953, with 10 Squadron (Richmond, NSW). RAAF Neptunes were fitted for ASW, surface ship detection and general reconnaissance. Twelve P2V4/5 (later designated P-2E) aircraft entered service with 11 Squadron in 1951. At first powered only by two R3350 radials, all were later retrofitted with Westinghouse J-34 auxiliary jets. Long-running severe spare parts shortages in
8745-413: The Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt , authorized the Navy to celebrate its birthday on 13 October to honor the establishment of the Continental Navy in 1775. The United States was without a navy for nearly a decade, a state of affairs that exposed U.S. maritime merchant ships to a series of attacks by the Barbary pirates . The sole armed maritime presence between 1790 and the launching of
8904-503: The Coast Guard may be called upon to operate as a service within the Navy. At other times, Coast Guard Port Security Units are sent overseas to guard the security of ports and other assets. The Coast Guard also jointly staffs the Navy's naval coastal warfare groups and squadrons (the latter of which were known as harbor defense commands until late-2004), which oversee defense efforts in foreign littoral combat and inshore areas. The United States Navy has over 400,000 personnel, approximately
9063-479: The Escuadrilla Aeronaval de Exploración ( Naval Exploration Squadron ). They were intensively used in 1978 during the Operation Soberania against Chile including over the Pacific Ocean. During the Falklands War in 1982, the last two airframes in service (2-P-111 and 2-P-112) carried out reconnaissance missions over the South Atlantic and on 4 May, after detecting a group of British warships, helped to direct an attack by two Dassault Super Étendards that resulted in
9222-488: The Mediterranean, where it participated in the Second Barbary War that ended piracy in the region, South America, Africa, and the Pacific. From 1819 to the outbreak of the Civil War, the Africa Squadron operated to suppress the slave trade , seizing 36 slave ships, although its contribution was smaller than that of the much larger British Royal Navy. After 1840 several secretaries of the navy were southerners who advocated for strengthening southern naval defenses, expanding
9381-493: The Mod 0 ended in December 1948, by which time there were still only 53 cores available. It was replaced by improved versions known as Mods 1 and 2 which contained a number of minor changes, the most important of which was that they did not charge the X-Unit firing system's capacitors until released from the aircraft. The Mod 0s were withdrawn from service between March and July 1949, and by October they had all been rebuilt as Mods 1 and 2. Some 120 Mark III Fat Man units were added to
9540-644: The Navy and Chief of Naval Operations are responsible for organizing, recruiting, training, and equipping the Navy so that it is ready for operation under the commanders of the unified combatant commands . There are nine components in the operating forces of the U.S. Navy: the United States Fleet Forces Command (formerly United States Atlantic Fleet), United States Pacific Fleet , United States Naval Forces Central Command , United States Naval Forces Europe , Naval Network Warfare Command , Navy Reserve , United States Naval Special Warfare Command , and Operational Test and Evaluation Force . Fleet Forces Command controls
9699-400: The Navy reactivated the Fourth Fleet to control operations in the area controlled by Southern Command, which consists of US assets in and around Central and South America. Other number fleets were activated during World War II and later deactivated, renumbered, or merged. Shore establishments exist to support the mission of the fleet through the use of facilities on land. Among the commands of
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#17327986062189858-424: The Navy. Petty Officers perform not only the duties of their specific career field but also serve as leaders to junior enlisted personnel. E-7 to E-9 are still considered Petty Officers, but are considered a separate community within the Navy. They have separate berthing and dining facilities (where feasible), wear separate uniforms, and perform separate duties. After attaining the rate of Master Chief Petty Officer,
10017-402: The Neptune became one of the first operational aircraft fitted with both piston and jet engines. The Convair B-36 , several Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter , Fairchild C-123 Provider , North American AJ Savage , and Avro Shackleton aircraft were also so equipped. To save weight and complexity of two separate fuel systems, the Westinghouse J34 jet engines on P2Vs burned the 115–145 Avgas fuel of
10176-459: The Neptune was license-built from 1966 by Kawasaki as the P-2J , with the piston engines replaced by IHI -built T64 turboprops. Kawasaki continued their manufacture much later than Lockheed did; the P-2J remained in service until 1984. P-2/P2Vs have been employed in aerial firefighting roles by operators such as Minden Air Corp and Neptune Aviation Services. The fire fighters can carry 2,080 US gal (7,900 L) of retardant and have
10335-503: The Neptunes added bombing and strafing operations to their patrol duties. On 17 May 1962, a Netherlands Navy Neptune shot down an Indonesian C-47 transport. A truce ended the conflict in September 1962, with Dutch New Guinea passing to UN control before becoming part of Indonesia, and the P2V-7s returned to Europe. The aircraft were upgraded to SP-2H standard soon after returning to the Netherlands, and remained in service until March 1982, when they were replaced by Lockheed Orions. In Japan,
10494-556: The P-2 from 1967 until 1972, flying 42,500 hours with no accidents. Observation Squadron 67 (VO-67) , call sign "Lindy", was the only P-2 Neptune aircraft squadron to ever receive the Presidential Unit Citation , flying Igloo White missions sowing seismic and acoustic sensors over the Ho Chi Minh trail . VO-67 lost three OP-2E aircraft and 20 aircrew to ground fire during its secret missions into Laos and Vietnam in 1967–68. The Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF) secret 34th Black Bat Squadron's RB-69A/P2V-7U ELINT/SIGINT aircraft flew
10653-433: The P2V Neptune for carrier takeoff using jet assisted takeoff ( JATO ) rocket boosters, with initial takeoff tests in 1948. However, the Neptune could not land on a carrier, therefore the crew had to either make their way to a friendly land base after a strike, or ditch in the sea near a U.S. Navy vessel. It was replaced in this emergency role by the North American AJ Savage (transferred to the Pacific Fleet in October 1952)
10812-563: The RB-69A would be manned by ROCAF crew while conducting operational missions, but would be manned by CIA crew when ferrying RB-69A out of Taiwan or other operational area to US. The P2V-7U/RB-69A flew with ROCAF Black Bat Squadron over China from 1957 to November 1966. All five original aircraft (two crashed in South Korea, three shot down over China) were lost with all hands on board. In January 1967, two remaining RB-69As flew back to NAS Alameda , California, and were converted back to regular US Navy P2V-7/SP-2H ASW aircraft configurations. Most of
10971-440: The SP-2H, retiring its last Neptune on 20 February 1970, while the last Naval Reserve patrol squadron to operate the Neptune, VP-94 , retired its last SP-2H in 1978. At the end of World War II, the US Navy felt the need to acquire a nuclear strike capability to maintain its political influence. In the short term, carrier-based aircraft were the best solution. The large Fat Man nuclear munitions at that time were bulky and required
11130-477: The Soviet Union to special operations and strike missions in regional conflicts. The navy participated in Operation Enduring Freedom , Operation Iraqi Freedom , and is a major participant in the ongoing War on Terror , largely in this capacity. Development continues on new ships and weapons, including the Gerald R. Ford -class aircraft carrier and the Littoral combat ship . Because of its size, weapons technology, and ability to project force far from U.S. shores,
11289-444: The Spook and Laggin' Dragon from the 509th Composite Group's 393d Bombardment Squadron , and another from the 216th Army Air Forces Base Unit . The cores were transported to North Field, arriving on 2 August, when F31 was partly disassembled in order to check all its components. F33 was expended near Tinian during a final rehearsal on 8 August. F32 presumably would have been used for a third attack or its rehearsal. On 7 August,
11448-700: The U.S. Army at the Niagara Frontier of the war, and the defeat of the Native American allies of the British at the Battle of the Thames . Despite this, the U.S. Navy could not prevent the British from blockading its ports and landing troops. But after the War of 1812 ended in 1815, the U.S. Navy primarily focused its attention on protecting American shipping assets, sending squadrons to the Caribbean,
11607-469: The U.S. Navy and its decisive victory over the outdated Spanish Navy in 1898 brought a new respect for American technical quality. Rapid building of at first pre-dreadnoughts, then dreadnoughts brought the U.S. in line with the navies of countries such as Britain and Germany. In 1907, most of the Navy's battleships, with several support vessels, dubbed the Great White Fleet , were showcased in
11766-614: The U.S. Navy's first warships in 1797 was the U.S. Revenue-Marine , the primary predecessor of the U.S. Coast Guard . Although the United States Revenue Cutter Service conducted operations against the pirates, the pirates' depredations far outstripped its abilities and Congress passed the Naval Act of 1794 that established a permanent standing navy on 27 March 1794. The Naval Act ordered the construction and manning of six frigates and, by October 1797,
11925-401: The U.S. economy and quality of life. This new strategy charts a course for the Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps to work collectively with each other and international partners to prevent these crises from occurring or reacting quickly should one occur to prevent negative impacts on the U.S. In 2010, Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations, noted that demands on the Navy have grown as
12084-981: The US Naval Reserve and the Dutch Navy. The 320 Squadron of the Royal Dutch Navy retired its last seven Neptunes in March 1982 as they were being replaced by the Lockheed Orion. The US Naval Reserve retired its last Neptunes in 1978, those aircraft also having been replaced by the P-3 Orion. By the 1980s, the Neptune had fallen out of military use in most purchasing nations, replaced by newer aircraft. The Netherlands received its first Neptunes in 1953–54, when it acquired 12 P2V-5s. These remained in service until 1960, when they were transferred to Portugal. The P2V-5s were initially not replaced, with
12243-525: The United States Navy grew under an ambitious ship building program associated with the Naval Act of 1916 . Naval construction, especially of battleships, was limited by the Washington Naval Conference of 1921–22, the first arms control conference in history. The aircraft carriers USS Saratoga (CV-3) and USS Lexington (CV-2) were built on the hulls of partially built battle cruisers that had been canceled by
12402-564: The United States Navy. Most naval aviation insignia are also permitted for wear on uniforms of the United States Marine Corps . As described in Chapter 5 of U.S. Navy Uniform Regulations, "badges" are categorized as breast insignia (usually worn immediately above and below ribbons) and identification badges (usually worn at breast pocket level). Breast insignia are further divided between command and warfare and other qualification . Fat Man " Fat Man " (also known as Mark III )
12561-579: The aft fuselage, near the sonobuoy chutes. Before the P-3 Orion arrived in the mid-1960s, the Neptune was the primary U.S. land-based anti-submarine patrol aircraft, intended to be operated as the hunter of a '"Hunter-Killer" group, with destroyers employed as killers. Several features aided the P-2 in its hunter role: As the P-2 was replaced in the US Navy by the P-3A Orion in active Fleet squadrons in
12720-635: The aircraft painted with dark sea blue color but with USAF markings. In 1957 one P2V-7U was sent to Eglin AFB for testing aircraft performance at low level and under adverse conditions. The initial two aircraft were sent to Europe, based at Wiesbaden , West Germany , but were later withdrawn in 1959 when the CIA reduced its covert aircraft assets in Europe. The CIA sent the other two P2V-7U/RB-69As to Hsinchu Air Base , Taiwan, where by December 1957, they were given to
12879-514: The aircraft to the heavy defenses of Yahata, but the bombardier was unable to drop visually. By the time of the third bomb run, Japanese anti-aircraft fire was getting close; Second Lieutenant Jacob Beser was monitoring Japanese communications, and he reported activity on the Japanese fighter direction radio bands. Sweeney then proceeded to the alternative target of Nagasaki. It was obscured by clouds as well, and Ashworth ordered Sweeney to make
13038-598: The aircraft, "The Turtle" set out from Perth , Australia to the United States. With a crew of four (and a nine-month-old gray kangaroo , a gift from Australia for the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. ) the aircraft set off on 9 September 1946, with a RATO (rocket-assisted takeoff). 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 days (55h, 18m) later, "The Turtle" touched down in Columbus, Ohio after 11,236.6 mi (18,083.6 km). It
13197-399: The anti-submarine aircraft requirement being met by carrier-borne Grumman S-2 Trackers . A new, urgent, requirement for maritime patrol aircraft soon developed, for service over Dutch New Guinea , and 15 new P2V-7s were purchased, entering service from September 1961. While initially employed on reconnaissance and patrol duties, as Indonesian infiltration attempts against New Guinea increased,
13356-566: The anti-submarine, anti-shipping, and maritime reconnaissance roles, as a stopgap pending deliveries of the Canadair CP-107 Argus , which began in 1960. Canadian Neptunes were delivered without the underwing Westinghouse J34 jet engine pods, which were retrofitted in 1959. Armament included two torpedoes, mines, depth charges, bombs carried internally plus unguided rockets mounted under the wings. Twenty five Neptunes served with 404, 405 and 407 squadrons until 1960. Upon unification of
13515-555: The bomb assembly team, and the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project had only three teams in June 1948. The only aircraft capable of carrying the bomb were Silverplate B-29s, and the only group equipped with them was the 509th Bombardment Group at Walker Air Force Base in Roswell, New Mexico . They would first have to fly to Sandia Base to collect the bombs and then to an overseas base from which
13674-505: The bomb rails allowed a maximum width of 5.5 feet (1.7 m). Drop tests began in March 1944 and resulted in modifications to the Silverplate aircraft due to the weight of the bomb. High-speed photographs revealed that the tail fins folded under the pressure, resulting in an erratic descent. Various combinations of stabilizer boxes and fins were tested on the Fat Man shape to eliminate its persistent wobble until an arrangement dubbed
13833-402: The bomb, and recharging took 72 hours. The batteries had to be removed in any case after nine days or they corroded. The plutonium core could not be left in for much longer, because its heat damaged the high explosives. Replacing the core also required the bomb to be completely disassembled and reassembled. This required about 40 to 50 men and took between 56 and 72 hours, depending on the skill of
13992-487: The bomb, because compressed fissile materials react more rapidly and therefore more completely. Nonetheless, it was decided that the plutonium gun would receive the bulk of the research effort, since it was the project with the least uncertainty involved. It was assumed that the uranium gun-type bomb could be easily adapted from it. The gun-type and implosion-type designs were codenamed " Thin Man " and "Fat Man", respectively. These code names were created by Robert Serber ,
14151-470: The bombing at Nagasaki. A total of 60,000–80,000 fatalities resulted, including from long-term health effects, the strongest of which was leukemia with an attributable risk of 46% for bomb victims. Others died later from related blast and burn injuries, and hundreds more from radiation illnesses from exposure to the bomb's initial radiation. Most of the direct deaths and injuries were among munitions or industrial workers. Mitsubishi's industrial production in
14310-623: The burden of retaliating against the Japanese on the small number of aircraft carriers. During World War II some 4,000,000 Americans served in the United States Navy. The potential for armed conflict with the Soviet Union during the Cold War pushed the U.S. Navy to continue its technological advancement by developing new weapons systems, ships, and aircraft. U.S. naval strategy changed to that of forward deployment in support of U.S. allies with an emphasis on carrier battle groups. The navy
14469-481: The capabilities of the US Navy's latest patrol bomber, and to surpass the standing record set by a Japanese Tachikawa Ki-77 . Its nickname was The Turtle , which was painted on the aircraft's nose (along with a cartoon of a turtle smoking a pipe pedaling a device attached to a propeller). However, in press releases immediately before the flight, the US Navy referred to it as "The Truculent Turtle". Loaded with fuel in extra tanks fitted in practically every spare space in
14628-490: The capture of California with large-scale land operations coordinated with the local militia organized in the California Battalion . The Navy conducted the U.S. military's first large-scale amphibious joint operation by successfully landing 12,000 army troops with their equipment in one day at Veracruz , Mexico. When larger guns were needed to bombard Veracruz, Navy volunteers landed large guns and manned them in
14787-487: The city was severed by the attack; the dockyard would have produced at 80 percent of its full capacity within three to four months, the steelworks would have required a year to get back to substantial production, the electric works would have resumed some production within two months and been back at capacity within six months, and the arms plant would have required 15 months to return to 60 to 70 percent of former capacity. The Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordnance Works, which manufactured
14946-411: The current U.S. Navy remains an asset for the United States. Moreover, it is the principal means through which the U.S. maintains international global order, namely by safeguarding global trade and protecting allied nations. In 2007, the U.S. Navy joined with the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard to adopt a new maritime strategy called A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower that raises
15105-507: The day after the bombing of Hiroshima, Rear Admiral William R. Purnell , Commodore William S. Parsons , Tibbets, General Carl Spaatz and Major General Curtis LeMay met on Guam to discuss what should be done next. Since there was no indication of Japan surrendering, they decided to proceed with their orders and drop another bomb. Parsons said that Project Alberta would have it ready by 11 August, but Tibbets pointed to weather reports indicating poor flying conditions on that day due to
15264-403: The day and 1,000-foot (300 m) at night) anti-submarine and/or anti-shipping operations as a safety measure should one of the radials develop problems. Normal crew access was via a ladder on the aft bulkhead of the nosewheel well to a hatch on the left side of the wheel well, then forward to the observer nose, or up through another hatch to the main deck. There was also a hatch in the floor of
15423-421: The density of plutonium gave inconsistent results. At first contamination was believed to be the cause, but it was soon determined that there were multiple allotropes of plutonium . The brittle α phase that exists at room temperature changes to the plastic β phase at higher temperatures. Attention then shifted to the even more malleable δ phase that normally exists in the 300–450 °C (570–840 °F) range. It
15582-580: The early 1950s made it necessary to put 6 of the 12 aircraft in long-term storage from 1953. In August 1953, the rear and front turrets were removed and replaced with a MAD boom and a clear Perspex nose for observation. In the late 1960s, RAAF Neptune operations were wound down and it was replaced with the P-3B Orion. With the founding of NATO in 1949 and the resulting additional maritime commitments it entailed for Britain, The Royal Air Force Coastal Command operated 52 P2V-5s, designated Neptune MR.1, as
15741-620: The early and mid-1960s, the P-2 continued to remain operational in the Naval Air Reserve through the mid-1970s, primarily in its SP-2H version. As active Fleet squadrons transitioned to the P-3B and P-3C in the mid- and late-1960s and early 1970s, the Naval Air Reserve P-2s were eventually replaced by P-3As and P-3Bs and the P-2 exited active U.S. naval service. VP-23 was the last active duty patrol squadron to operate
15900-464: The end of the war. The U.S. Navy had followed in the footsteps of the navies of Great Britain and Germany which favored concentrated groups of battleships as their main offensive naval weapons. The development of the aircraft carrier and its devastating use by the Japanese against the U.S. at Pearl Harbor, however, shifted U.S. thinking. The Pearl Harbor attack destroyed or took out of action a significant number of U.S. Navy battleships. This placed much of
16059-526: The face of the expiration of budget relief offered by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 and CNO Jonathan Greenert said that a ten ship carrier fleet would not be able to sustainably support military requirements. The British First Sea Lord George Zambellas said that the USN had switched from "outcome-led to resource-led" planning. One significant change in U.S. policymaking that is having
16218-574: The first nuclear strike aircraft that was fully capable of carrier launch and recovery operations; it was also short-lived in that role as the US Navy was adopting fully jet powered nuclear strike aircraft. In 1954 under Project Cherry , the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) obtained five newly built P2V-7 and converted these into P2V-7U/RB-69A variants by Lockheed's Skunk Works at Hangar B5 in Burbank, California , for
16377-654: The first three commands being led by four-star admirals. The United States First Fleet existed after World War II from 1947, but it was redesignated the Third Fleet in early 1973. The Second Fleet was deactivated in September 2011 but reestablished in August 2018 amid heightened tensions with Russia. It is headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, with responsibility over the East Coast and North Atlantic. In early 2008,
16536-566: The first three were brought into service: USS United States , USS Constellation , and USS Constitution . Due to his strong posture on having a strong standing Navy during this period, John Adams is "often called the father of the American Navy". In 1798–99 the Navy was involved in an undeclared Quasi-War with France. From 1801 to 1805, in the First Barbary War , the U.S. Navy defended U.S. ships from
16695-424: The first time at the Battle of Hampton Roads in 1862, which pitted USS Monitor against CSS Virginia . For two decades after the war, however, the U.S. Navy's fleet was neglected and became technologically obsolete . A modernization program beginning in the 1880s when the first steel-hulled warships stimulated the American steel industry, and "the new steel navy" was born. This rapid expansion of
16854-491: The first uniform regulations for officers were issued in 1802 on the formation of the Navy Department. The predominant colors of U.S. Navy uniforms are navy blue and white. U.S. Navy uniforms were based on Royal Navy uniforms of the time and have tended to follow that template. Navy officers serve either as a line officer or as a staff corps officer . Line officers wear an embroidered gold star above their rank of
17013-411: The fissile material present. The detonation released the energy equivalent to the detonation of 21 kilotons of TNT or 88 terajoules. About 30% of the yield came from fission of the uranium tamper. The first plutonium core was transported with its polonium-beryllium modulated neutron initiator in the custody of Project Alberta courier Raemer Schreiber in a magnesium field carrying case designed for
17172-456: The fleet has shrunk and that in the face of declining budgets in the future, the U.S. Navy must rely even more on international partnerships. In its 2013 budget request, the navy focused on retaining all eleven big deck carriers, at the expense of cutting numbers of smaller ships and delaying the SSBN replacement. By the next year the USN found itself unable to maintain eleven aircraft carriers in
17331-705: The fleet, and making naval technological improvements. During the Mexican–American War the U.S. Navy blockaded Mexican ports, capturing or burning the Mexican fleet in the Gulf of California and capturing all major cities in Baja California peninsula. In 1846–1848 the Navy successfully used the Pacific Squadron under Commodore Robert F. Stockton and its marines and blue-jackets to facilitate
17490-404: The flight engineer notified Sweeney that an inoperative fuel transfer pump made it impossible to use 640 US gallons (2,400 L) of fuel carried in a reserve tank. This fuel would still have to be carried all the way to Japan and back, consuming still more fuel. Replacing the pump would take hours; moving the Fat Man to another aircraft might take just as long and was dangerous as well, as the bomb
17649-419: The form of the isotope plutonium-240 . This has a far higher spontaneous fission rate and radioactivity than plutonium-239 . The cyclotron -produced isotopes, on which the original measurements had been made, held much lower traces of plutonium-240. Its inclusion in reactor-bred plutonium appeared unavoidable. This meant that the spontaneous fission rate of the reactor plutonium was so high that pre-detonation
17808-642: The hands of the Barbary pirates from Algiers , the United States Congress passed the Naval Act of 1794 for the construction of six heavy frigates , the first ships of the Navy. The United States Navy played a major role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy and seizing control of its rivers. It played the central role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan . The United States Navy emerged from World War II as
17967-625: The issue. The committee concluded that any problems could be overcome simply by requiring higher purity. Oppenheimer reviewed his options in early 1943 and gave priority to the gun-type weapon, but he created the E-5 Group at the Los Alamos Laboratory under Seth Neddermeyer to investigate implosion as a hedge against the threat of pre- detonation . Implosion-type bombs were determined to be significantly more efficient in terms of explosive yield per unit mass of fissile material in
18126-468: The mission of the U.S. Armed Forces is "to be prepared to conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest." The Navy's five enduring functions are: sea control , power projection , deterrence , maritime security , and sealift . It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious. Would to Heaven we had
18285-529: The most common ground since aircrews are guided in their use of aircraft by standard procedures outlined in a series of publications known as NATOPS manuals. The United States Coast Guard , in its peacetime role with the Department of Homeland Security , fulfills its law enforcement and rescue role in the maritime environment. It provides Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETs) to Navy vessels, where they perform arrests and other law enforcement duties during naval boarding and interdiction missions. In times of war,
18444-476: The most important is the "warfare qualification", which denotes a journeyman level of capability in Surface Warfare, Aviation Warfare, Information Dominance Warfare, Naval Aircrew, Special Warfare, Seabee Warfare, Submarine Warfare or Expeditionary Warfare. Many qualifications are denoted on a sailor's uniform with U.S. Navy badges and insignia . The uniforms of the U.S. Navy have evolved gradually since
18603-597: The most powerful navy in the world. The modern United States Navy maintains a sizable global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific , the Mediterranean , and the Indian Ocean. It is a blue-water navy with the ability to project force onto the littoral regions of the world, engage in forward deployments during peacetime and rapidly respond to regional crises, making it
18762-495: The naval service dress uniform while staff corps officers and commissioned warrant officers wear unique designator insignias that denotes their occupational specialty. Warrant and chief warrant officer ranks are held by technical specialists who direct specific activities essential to the proper operation of the ship, which also require commissioned officer authority. Navy warrant officers serve in 30 specialties covering five categories. Warrant officers should not be confused with
18921-461: The new design was considered a low priority compared to other aircraft in development at the time, with Vega also developing and producing the PV-2 Harpoon patrol bomber. On 19 February 1943, the U.S. Navy signed a letter of intent for two prototype XP2Vs, which was confirmed by a formal contract on 4 April 1944 with a further 15 aircraft being ordered 10 days later. It was not until 1944 that
19080-555: The night of 16 March 1964. The RB-69A took off from Da Nang, flew up the Gulf of Tonkin before coasting in near Haiphong , then flew down North Vietnam and the Laos border. The mission was requested by SOG for helping plan the insert or resupply of agents. Seven AAA sites, 14 early warning radar sites and two GCI radar signals were detected. The Argentine Naval Aviation had received at least 16 Neptunes of different variants since 1958 including eight former RAF examples for use in
19239-779: The notion of prevention of war to the same philosophical level as the conduct of war. The strategy was presented by the Chief of Naval Operations , the Commandant of the Marine Corps , and Commandant of the Coast Guard at the International Sea Power Symposium in Newport, Rhode Island on 17 October 2007. The strategy recognized the economic links of the global system and how any disruption due to regional crises (man-made or natural) can adversely impact
19398-410: The number two official in the Navy Department during World War I, appreciated the Navy and gave it strong support. In return, senior leaders were eager for innovation and experimented with new technologies, such as magnetic torpedoes, and developed a strategy called War Plan Orange for victory in the Pacific in a hypothetical war with Japan that would eventually become reality. The U.S. Navy grew into
19557-539: The ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchantmen and reported the captures to the Congress. On 13 October 1775, the Continental Congress authorized the purchase of two vessels to be armed for a cruise against British merchantmen; this resolution created the Continental Navy and is considered the first establishment of the U.S. Navy. The Continental Navy achieved mixed results; it
19716-427: The operational environment, as an expeditionary force specializing in amphibious operations, Marines often embark on Navy ships to conduct operations from beyond territorial waters. Marine units deploying as part of a Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) operate under the command of the existing Marine chain of command. Although Marine units routinely operate from amphibious assault ships, the relationship has evolved over
19875-451: The other organizations, playing a coordinating role. In 1834, the United States Marine Corps came under the Department of the Navy. Historically, the Navy has had a unique relationship with the USMC, partly because they both specialize in seaborne operations. Together the Navy and Marine Corps form the Department of the Navy and report to the Secretary of the Navy. However, the Marine Corps
20034-554: The piston engines, instead of jet fuel. The jet pods were fitted with intake doors that remained closed when the J-34s were not running. This prevented windmilling, allowing for economical piston-engine-only long-endurance search and patrol operations. In normal US Navy operations, the jet engines were run at full power (97%) to assure takeoff, then shut down upon reaching a safe altitude. The jets were also started and kept running at flight idle during low-altitude (500-foot (150 m) during
20193-517: The program went into full swing. A major factor in the design was ease of manufacture and maintenance, and this may have been a major factor in the type's long life and worldwide success. The first aircraft flew in May 1945. Production began in 1946, and the aircraft was accepted into service in 1947. Potential use as a bomber led to successful launches from aircraft carriers. Beginning with the P2V-5F model,
20352-417: The purpose by Philip Morrison. Magnesium was chosen because it does not act as a tamper. It left Kirtland Army Air Field on a C-54 transport aircraft of the 509th Composite Group 's 320th Troop Carrier Squadron on 26 July and arrived at North Field on Tinian on 28 July. Three Fat Man high-explosive pre-assemblies (designated F31, F32, and F33) were picked up at Kirtland on 28 July by three B-29s: Luke
20511-499: The real thing? Surely this laboratory monstrosity is not the only type of atomic bomb we have in stockpile?" Nichols told him that better weapons would soon become available. After the "astonishingly good" results of Operation Sandstone were available, stockpiling of improved weapons began. The Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon was based closely on Fat Man's design thanks to spies Klaus Fuchs , Theodore Hall , and David Greenglass , who provided them with secret information concerning
20670-412: The same." The bomb was 128.375 inches (3.2607 m) long and 60.25 inches (153.0 cm) in diameter. It weighed 10,265 pounds (4,656 kg). The plutonium pit was 3.62 inches (92 mm) in diameter and contained an "Urchin" modulated neutron initiator that was 0.8 inches (20 mm) in diameter. The depleted uranium tamper was an 8.75-inch-diameter (222 mm) sphere, surrounded by
20829-663: The senior command meant that naval forces were not contributed until late 1917. Battleship Division Nine was dispatched to Britain and served as the Sixth Battle Squadron of the British Grand Fleet. Its presence allowed the British to decommission some older ships and reuse the crews on smaller vessels. Destroyers and U.S. Naval Air Force units like the Northern Bombing Group contributed to the anti-submarine operations. The strength of
20988-1052: The shore establishment, as of April 2011 , are the Naval Education and Training Command , the Navy Installations Command , the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command , the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command , the Naval Facilities Engineering Command , the Naval Supply Systems Command , the Naval Air Systems Command , the Naval Sea Systems Command , the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery ,
21147-582: The sinking of the British destroyer HMS Sheffield . The lack of spare parts, caused by the US having enacted an arms embargo in 1977 due to the Dirty War , led to the type being retired before the end of the war; Argentine Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules took over the task of searching for targets for strike aircraft. The Royal Canadian Air Force's Air Command replaced their aging Avro Lancaster maritime aircraft beginning in 1955 with P2V-7 Neptunes in
21306-497: The stockpile between 1947 and 1949, when it was superseded by the Mark 4 nuclear bomb . The Mark III Fat Man was retired in 1950. A nuclear strike would have been a formidable undertaking in the post-war 1940s due to the limitations of the Mark III Fat Man. The lead-acid batteries which powered the fuzing system remained charged for only 36 hours, after which they needed to be recharged. To do this meant disassembling
21465-536: The successful bombardment and capture of the city. This successful landing and capture of Veracruz opened the way for the capture of Mexico City and the end of the war. The U.S. Navy established itself as a player in United States foreign policy through the actions of Commodore Matthew C. Perry in Japan, which resulted in the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854. Naval power played a significant role during
21624-482: The treaty. The New Deal used Public Works Administration funds to build warships, such as USS Yorktown (CV-5) and USS Enterprise (CV-6) . By 1936, with the completion of USS Wasp (CV-7) , the U.S. Navy possessed a carrier fleet of 165,000 tonnes displacement , although this figure was nominally recorded as 135,000 tonnes to comply with treaty limitations. Franklin Roosevelt ,
21783-438: The weaponeer in charge of the bomb. Bockscar lifted off at 03:47 on 9 August 1945, with Kokura as the primary target and Nagasaki the secondary target. The weapon was already armed but with the green electrical safety plugs still engaged. Ashworth changed them to red after ten minutes so that Sweeney could climb to 17,000 feet (5,200 m) in order to get above storm clouds. During the pre-flight inspection of Bockscar ,
21942-604: The years much as the Commander of the Carrier Air Group/Wing (CAG) does not work for the carrier commanding officer, but coordinates with the ship's CO and staff. Some Marine aviation squadrons, usually fixed-wing assigned to carrier air wings train and operate alongside Navy squadrons; they fly similar missions and often fly sorties together under the cognizance of the CAG. Aviation is where the Navy and Marines share
22101-588: Was a major participant in the Korean and Vietnam Wars , blockaded Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis , and, through the use of ballistic missile submarines , became an important aspect of the United States' nuclear strategic deterrence policy. The U.S. Navy conducted various combat operations in the Persian Gulf against Iran in 1987 and 1988, most notably Operation Praying Mantis . The Navy
22260-506: Was assembled with just 90 bolts. On 16 July 1945, a Y-1561 model Fat Man, known as the Gadget, was detonated in a test explosion at a remote site in New Mexico , known as the " Trinity " test. It gave a yield of about 25 kilotonnes (100 TJ). Some minor changes were made to the design as a result of the Trinity test. Philip Morrison recalled that "There were some changes of importance... The fundamental thing was, of course, very much
22419-423: Was assembled with some 1,500 bolts. This was superseded by the Y-1291 design in December 1944. This redesign work was substantial, and only the Y-1222 tail design was retained. Later versions included the Y-1560, which had 72 detonators; the Y-1561, which had 32; and the Y-1562, which had 132. There were also the Y-1563 and Y-1564, which were practice bombs with no detonators at all. The final wartime Y-1561 design
22578-611: Was brought in as a consultant and discussed the problem with Neddermeyer in June 1943. Thompson was skeptical that an implosion could be made sufficiently symmetric. Oppenheimer arranged for Neddermeyer and Edwin McMillan to visit the National Defense Research Committee 's Explosives Research Laboratory near the laboratories of the Bureau of Mines in Bruceton, Pennsylvania (a Pittsburgh suburb), where they spoke to George Kistiakowsky and his team. But Neddermeyer's efforts in July and August at imploding tubes to produce cylinders tended to produce objects that resembled rocks. Neddermeyer
22737-590: Was continued, and drop tests resumed in January 1946. The Mark III Mod 0 Fat Man was ordered into production in mid-1946. High explosives were manufactured by the Salt Wells Pilot Plant , which had been established by the Manhattan Project as part of Project Camel , and a new plant was established at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant . Mechanical components were made or procured by the Rock Island Arsenal ; electrical and mechanical components for about 50 bombs were stockpiled at Kirtland Army Air Field by August 1946, but only nine plutonium cores were available. Production of
22896-418: Was developed by von Neumann. The success of the bomb relied on absolute precision in all of the plates moving inward at the same time. To overcome the difficulty of synchronizing multiple detonations, Luis Alvarez and Lawrence Johnston invented exploding-bridgewire detonators to replace the less precise primacord detonation system. Robert Christy is credited with doing the calculations that showed how
23055-421: Was extensively involved in Operation Urgent Fury , Operation Desert Shield , Operation Desert Storm , Operation Deliberate Force , Operation Allied Force , Operation Desert Fox and Operation Southern Watch . The U.S. Navy has also been involved in search and rescue/search and salvage operations, sometimes in conjunction with vessels of other countries as well as with U.S. Coast Guard ships. Two examples are
23214-400: Was faced with a two-front war on the seas. It achieved notable acclaim in the Pacific Theater , where it was instrumental to the Allies' successful " island hopping " campaign. The U.S. Navy participated in many significant battles, including the Battle of the Coral Sea , the Battle of Midway , the Solomon Islands Campaign , the Battle of the Philippine Sea , the Battle of Leyte Gulf , and
23373-433: Was found that this was stable at room temperature when alloyed with aluminum, but aluminum emits neutrons when bombarded with alpha particles , which would exacerbate the pre-ignition problem. The metallurgists then hit upon a plutonium–gallium alloy , which stabilized the δ phase and could be hot pressed into the desired shape. They found it easier to cast hemispheres than spheres. The core consisted of two hemispheres with
23532-405: Was highly likely and that the bomb would blow itself apart during the initial formation of critical mass , creating a " fizzle ." The distance required to accelerate the plutonium to speeds where pre--detonation would be less likely would need a gun barrel too long for any existing or planned bomber. The only way to use plutonium in a workable bomb was therefore implosion. The impracticability of
23691-400: Was immediately suggested, and Kistiakowsky was brought into the project as a consultant in October. The implosion project remained a backup until April 1944, when experiments by Emilio G. Segrè and his P-5 Group at Los Alamos on the newly reactor-produced plutonium from the X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge and the B Reactor at the Hanford Site showed that it contained impurities in
23850-413: Was live. Colonel Paul Tibbets and Sweeney therefore elected to have Bockscar continue the mission. Kokura was obscured by clouds and drifting smoke from fires started by a major firebombing raid by 224 B-29s on nearby Yahata the previous day. This covered 70% of the area over Kokura, obscuring the aiming point. Three bomb runs were made over the next 50 minutes, burning fuel and repeatedly exposing
24009-414: Was named only to contrast with the Thin Man. Los Alamos's Thin Man and Fat Man code names were adopted by the United States Army Air Forces in their involvement in the Manhattan Project, codenamed Silverplate . A cover story was devised that Silverplate was about modifying a Pullman car for use by President Franklin Roosevelt (Thin Man) and United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Fat Man) on
24168-514: Was nicknamed Helen of Bikini and was placed without its tail fin assembly in a steel caisson made from a submarine's conning tower; it was detonated 90 feet (27 m) beneath the landing craft USS LSM-60 . The two weapons yielded about 23 kilotonnes (96 TJ) each. The Los Alamos Laboratory and the Army Air Forces had already commenced work on improving the design. The North American B-45 Tornado , Convair XB-46 , Martin XB-48 , and Boeing B-47 Stratojet bombers had bomb bays sized to carry
24327-409: Was not until 1921 US naval aviation truly commenced. During World War I , the U.S. Navy spent much of its resources protecting and shipping hundreds of thousands of soldiers and marines of the American Expeditionary Force and war supplies across the Atlantic in U-boat infested waters with the Cruiser and Transport Force . It also concentrated on laying the North Sea Mine Barrage . Hesitation by
24486-451: Was stenciled on the bomb's nose, standing for "Joint Army-Navy-Civilian Fuckup", a play on the acronym " SNAFU ". It was then wheeled to the bomb bay of the B-29 Superfortress named Bockscar after the plane's command pilot Captain Frederick C. Bock , who flew The Great Artiste with his crew on the mission. Bockscar was flown by Major Charles W. Sweeney and his crew, with Commander Frederick L. Ashworth from Project Alberta as
24645-403: Was successful in a number of engagements and raided many British merchant vessels, but it lost twenty-four of its vessels and at one point was reduced to two in active service. In August 1785, after the Revolutionary War had drawn to a close, Congress had sold Alliance , the last ship remaining in the Continental Navy due to a lack of funds to maintain the ship or support a navy. In 1972,
24804-415: Was the codename for the type of nuclear weapon the United States detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in warfare, the first being Little Boy , and its detonation marked the third nuclear explosion in history. The first one was built by scientists and engineers at Los Alamos Laboratory using plutonium manufactured at
24963-414: Was the longest un-refueled flight yet beating the unofficial 10,212 mi (16,435 km) record set by the Japanese Tachikawa Ki-77. This would stand as the absolute unrefueled distance record until 1962 when it was beaten by a USAF Boeing B-52 Stratofortress , and would remain as a piston-engined record until 1986 when the Rutan Voyager broke it circumnavigating the globe. "The Turtle" is preserved at
25122-432: Was the only person who believed that implosion was practical, and only his enthusiasm kept the project alive. Oppenheimer brought John von Neumann to Los Alamos in September to take a fresh look at implosion. After reviewing Neddermeyer's studies, and discussing the matter with Edward Teller , von Neumann suggested the use of high explosives in shaped charges to implode a sphere, which he showed could not only result in
25281-408: Was warm to the touch, emitting 2.4 W/kg-Pu, about 15 W for the 6.19-kilogram (13.6 lb) core. The explosion symmetrically compressed the plutonium to twice its normal density before the "Urchin" added free neutrons to initiate a fission chain reaction . The result was the fission of about 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of the 6.19 kilograms (13.6 lb) of plutonium in the pit, or about 16% of
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