THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996 TAG: 9607180316
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 44 lines
F-14 Tomcats from the Norfolk-based carrier Enterprise inaugurated the Navy's newest high-tech weapons system Tuesday in peaceful skies over Bosnia.
Four Tomcats from fighter squadron VF-103 at Oceana Naval Air Station flew their first operational mission with the LANTIRN laser-guided bomb system. LANTIRN is a wing-mounted pod of electronic gadgetry that allows the F-14 to lock onto an enemy up to 20 miles away, then drop a bomb that can be steered precisely to its target.
``A little over a year ago, this was just a good idea,'' said Capt. Jim Zortman, air group commander aboard the Enterprise. It was ``pretty amazing'' to see it brought into operation so quickly, he said.
In a telephone interview from the ship, operating in the Adriatic Sea, Zortman said the system worked as well in real world conditions over Bosnia as it had when the Tomcats tested it during exercises in the Atlantic this spring.
``It's very user-friendly,'' said Lt. Otto Sieber, who flew one of Wednesday's missions.
The Enterprise deployed last month with six of the LANTIRN pods and nine F-14s outfitted to use them.
The system gives the Tomcat, long the Navy's premier aerial dogfighter, an important new mission as a precision-strike bomber.
A total of 14 F-14s are deployed with the Enterprise. Those not outfitted for the LANTIRN pods can still deliver precision-guided bombs by letting a LANTIRN operator flying nearby handle the laser operation and guide the bombs to their targets.
The new mission is particularly important to F-14 crews in places like Bosnia, where U.S. forces face no airborne threat for the Tomcats to counter and military commanders want to avoid the use of the ``dumb'' bombs the Tomcat had been limited to on previous bombing missions.
``There's very few places we go or things we do that laser-guided weapons aren't one of the first things we look at,'' said Zortman.
F/A-18 Hornets aboard the Enterprise and other Navy flattops already are equipped with an earlier model system essentially similar to LANTIRN.
Both systems work for both day and night missions but can not be used when bad weather keeps the laser from staying locked on target.
KEYWORDS: F-14 U.S. NAVY LANTRIN by CNB