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Better Flying Conditions for USS Constellation

Aired March 26, 2003 - 15:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to immediately get to our embedded journalist, Frank Buckley. He's aboard one of those aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, the USS Constellation.
Frank, we haven't heard from you in a little while. What's going on aboard the Constellation?

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, air wing, too, very active aboard the USS Constellation. They're flying tonight in much better weather conditions than they experienced last night. Wind, rain, hail creating problems.

In fact, as planes take off tonight into a relatively good weather to provide close air support, it's a stark difference from what they encountered last night. Last night, six planes had to divert, could not land immediately on their scheduled time here on the USS Constellation because of the various weather problems. They had to divert to other airfields.

One plane in particular encountered some severe hail damage. This is an EA-6B Prowler from the Lancer squadron. That plane was going to get some gas, was going to tank on a tanker as it was inbound to Iraq. The EA-6B hit a thunderstorm, encountered some hail. Here's how the CAG, the commander of the air wing, described the situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. MARK FOX, U.S. NAVY: They got to their tanker, everything was fine. They got their gas and then they -- but the hail had weakened the radome on the airplane that they had gone through in the thunderstorm. In fact, the radome imploded much after the fact. So they had an interesting situation there where they came back. And if you see 503 up on the flight deck, it look like it has gone through a hailstorm, because it has.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: And fortunately, that EA-6B Prowler from the Lancer squadron made it back safely to the USS Constellation. But, again, six other aircraft had to divert to other airfields. They were also recovered last night, just later then they planned.

The fact that that Prowler and the others flew in that kind of weather last night really gives you an indication, Wolf, of how important this mission is to these commanders of close air support. They feel like they have to fly these missions because troops on the ground are depending on them with their lives, and they will fly sometimes in these very difficult conditions just to make sure that the troops have that support from the air -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And that Prowler that you're talking about, Frank, to our viewers who may not be familiar with its specialized purpose, talk to all of us a little bit about what the specific mission of the Prowler is and why it's so incredibly important in the current battle environment.

BUCKLEY: Well, the Prowler -- the EA-6B Prowler is a radar- jamming aircraft. So it goes in with any strike package to jam radar. Why is that important? Well, the radar is what the surface-to-air systems use to lock on to aircraft and can guide a surface-to-air missile right into a jet that's coming in on attack.

So the Prowlers go in, jam the radar, cause the screen of the operator, the Iraqi operator of the surface to air system, to see, in some cases, just a completely white screen, instead of the blips that would indicate an incoming aircraft. It doesn't tell the missile, therefore, where to go. And when that happens, the missile is simply guided ballistically. That is, they simply shoot it into the air hoping it will hit something, but he chances of it hitting something are incredibly rare.

The pilots on this aircraft carrier call that the golden BB, if it, in fact, were to hit that, because it would be such a luck shot for that particularly ballistically-guided missile to hit them.

BLITZER: Frank Buckley, aboard the USS Constellation, one of the five U.S. aircraft carriers in the region here participating in this war in Iraq.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired March 26, 2003 - 15:38   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to immediately get to our embedded journalist, Frank Buckley. He's aboard one of those aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, the USS Constellation.
Frank, we haven't heard from you in a little while. What's going on aboard the Constellation?

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, air wing, too, very active aboard the USS Constellation. They're flying tonight in much better weather conditions than they experienced last night. Wind, rain, hail creating problems.

In fact, as planes take off tonight into a relatively good weather to provide close air support, it's a stark difference from what they encountered last night. Last night, six planes had to divert, could not land immediately on their scheduled time here on the USS Constellation because of the various weather problems. They had to divert to other airfields.

One plane in particular encountered some severe hail damage. This is an EA-6B Prowler from the Lancer squadron. That plane was going to get some gas, was going to tank on a tanker as it was inbound to Iraq. The EA-6B hit a thunderstorm, encountered some hail. Here's how the CAG, the commander of the air wing, described the situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. MARK FOX, U.S. NAVY: They got to their tanker, everything was fine. They got their gas and then they -- but the hail had weakened the radome on the airplane that they had gone through in the thunderstorm. In fact, the radome imploded much after the fact. So they had an interesting situation there where they came back. And if you see 503 up on the flight deck, it look like it has gone through a hailstorm, because it has.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: And fortunately, that EA-6B Prowler from the Lancer squadron made it back safely to the USS Constellation. But, again, six other aircraft had to divert to other airfields. They were also recovered last night, just later then they planned.

The fact that that Prowler and the others flew in that kind of weather last night really gives you an indication, Wolf, of how important this mission is to these commanders of close air support. They feel like they have to fly these missions because troops on the ground are depending on them with their lives, and they will fly sometimes in these very difficult conditions just to make sure that the troops have that support from the air -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And that Prowler that you're talking about, Frank, to our viewers who may not be familiar with its specialized purpose, talk to all of us a little bit about what the specific mission of the Prowler is and why it's so incredibly important in the current battle environment.

BUCKLEY: Well, the Prowler -- the EA-6B Prowler is a radar- jamming aircraft. So it goes in with any strike package to jam radar. Why is that important? Well, the radar is what the surface-to-air systems use to lock on to aircraft and can guide a surface-to-air missile right into a jet that's coming in on attack.

So the Prowlers go in, jam the radar, cause the screen of the operator, the Iraqi operator of the surface to air system, to see, in some cases, just a completely white screen, instead of the blips that would indicate an incoming aircraft. It doesn't tell the missile, therefore, where to go. And when that happens, the missile is simply guided ballistically. That is, they simply shoot it into the air hoping it will hit something, but he chances of it hitting something are incredibly rare.

The pilots on this aircraft carrier call that the golden BB, if it, in fact, were to hit that, because it would be such a luck shot for that particularly ballistically-guided missile to hit them.

BLITZER: Frank Buckley, aboard the USS Constellation, one of the five U.S. aircraft carriers in the region here participating in this war in Iraq.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com