Quote:
Originally Posted by Hachiman  Hi
I was under the impression that in older naval squadrons equipped with the hornet that most of the planes would be single seat A/C’s with a couple of 2 seater B/D’s thrown in. However with the Superhornet it seems whole squadrons have either single seater E’s or twin seater F’s.
I was wondering if someone could tell me the difference apart from the obvious 2nd person between the F/A-18E and F/A-18F. What can the 2 seater do that the 1 seater can’t apart from take half the job away from the pilot? And why have whole squadrons equipped with just the 1 type? Does that mean some squadrons are less mission capable than others?
Thanx |
The idea behind single seat craft is to do more with less hence you see things like the F22 and F35 as single seaters.
The reality is that one person doing all the flying and all the weapons is very difficult and the single seaters have a higher mission failure rate. Two sets of eyes and split functionality in the cockpit mean better mission stats. I have a relative who's a back-seater in an 18-F. On deployment, their squadron had a 100% mission success rate; if they pulled the trigger, they hit it first go-around. The single seaters often had to do a 2nd pass to hit the target.
In most F's today, the radar is either air-to-air or air-to-ground so the aircraft can only do one thing. In this case, the back seater handles navigation, sensors, weapons selection, and targeting while the front seater flies the plane and pulls the trigger. In the next gen craft, the radar is both air-to-air and air-to-ground at the same time. The pilot will handle flying and air engagements and the back seater will drop the bombs.
The WSO (Weapons Systems Officer) is also a second set of eyes for ground ops (keep the plane handlers from driving the plane off the edge of the boat or into another plane) and in the air (looking for bad guys during dog fighting).
The back seat is a busy place and I don't know why every fighter/attack craft isn't a two seater.
